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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/ipl/news/Why-did-IPL-teams-ignore-local-talent/articleshow/30629718.cms As cricket fans in Karnataka are fuming over Royal Challengers Bangalore cold shouldering local talent, former stars feel that the Mallya-owned team was under no pressure to pick the state heroes, who won a grand double winning the Ranji and Irani Trophy, as the IPL governing body had dropped the rule which made it mandatory for teams to pick players from their catchment area. "The biggest factor that went against the local players is the IPL governing body's decision to do away with the catchment area rule which was operational during the first five years. Also, many of the local players couldn't exhibit their prowess in the T20 version as the BCCI has goofed up the schedule of the Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament. Earlier, this tourney helped the scouts to zero in on the players whom they wanted to buy," a former player said on condition of anonymity. Another former star also felt for the local players who have missed out on a chance to play at their home ground. "One thing the owners have to realize is that if they have picked 4-5 of the top state players they would have inspired another 40-50 youngsters to take up the sport. But then IPL is more about business and less about promoting cricket," he said. Analyzing the tactics of the RCB think-thank, who picked up Ashok Dinda ignoring the claims of Abhimanyu Mithun, experts said the idea is to pack your team with batsmen who can also bowl. "They would prefer a pinch hitter instead of the likes of Vinay Kumar who will also go for runs in T20. RCB's game plan is to pack their side with power hitters. They are trying to assemble a team that can hit out the opposition. They are not too worried about their bowling as they have quite a few big hitters who can fill in the overs," they opined. They also argued that even though Karnataka players have done well the success is Ranji Trophy is not the yardstick to pick the T20 sides. "Thanks to BCCI's scheduling this year we will have T20 tournament after the auctions. You can argue that RCB ignored local players but success in Ranji cannot be the only yard stick. Players like Ganesh Satish and Amit Verma are not T20 players whereas some one like Karun Nair is lucky to get the deal. Some of them like Shreyas Gopal will find it difficult to make the playing XI. Apart from Robin others will find it difficult to make an impact. See the Mumbai Indians squad they don't have any Mumbai players whereas six of them have been bought by Rajasthan," he said. Another veteran who knew the working the franchises admitted that at times the auction gets quite tricky. "All the franchises have done several mock auctions in the last one week and despite that they have goofed up. It's not easy to make the right call when each of these players' set come up for auction. For example, by the time HS Sharath's name came up for auction RCB already had several fast bowlers in their ranks," he said. "Take the case of Paul Valthatty who was the IPL's player of the tournament few years back. He went unsold. Now there are lot of players coming through the Big Bash tournament in Australia. The IPL rules are not favourable to the uncapped players in India. Several foreign uncapped players command more than a crore where as talented Indians go for few lakhs," he added.

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