NMSL 3.0 Auctions – Part I

The auctions held last Sunday evening was a whole lot of fun. Kushagra Patwa and (Mr!) Tanuj Baru truly rocked the show and helped a great deal in the smooth conduct of the auctions till the end. The session which started around 5PM ended only around 8.45PM with all teams fighting it out for the best possible squad.

Let the a(u)ction begin! (Baru, Patwa)

Let’s see how the teams fared in the auctions… the hits, misses and much more.
NM Gangstars
“No team has loyal followers, as much as Gangstars does!”


Way before the auctions started, two of the Gangstars alumni – Shyam P and last year’s icon Rohit Bharate arrived (In fact, Bharate chipped in during the exhibition match as well, and did put a few inside the net) The Gangstars team management was the first to mark their territory.
Typical of a Gangstars’ dugout, as luck would have it, the lights in 701 became dim in the area. With two flags and a makeshift gun, they were ready. Every member of the team was dressed in black suits, yeah, that included the alumni too – such is the team spirit this team has always carried. Not for nothing that this team always has an aura around it, along with a lot of supporters and well wishers. (Not to mention that Tanuj Baru was fully a Gangstar by heart; knowingly or unknowingly he was in Black too!)
Over to business now… By the time the pool A auction was over, Gangstars had already filled their top four from the auctions. Anand, Udit Sharma, Viresh and Hemant joined the team. At $70 million, Viresh was a steal really! The dark team had played their joker card for the big man. When Anand was roped in for $185 million, the atmosphere in Gangstars’ camp was like ‘The Return of the king!’, and why not! The fact that these two were a part of the legendary team in the last edition is an added advantage. By the way, I think the Gangstars team of NMSL 2.0 is by far the best team NMSL has ever seen; it’s hard to match that again either!

Anand

Gangstars forever – Anand and Viresh

“Once a Gangstar, always!’
Hemant and Udit were quite decent buys for the money spent. With a midfield of Anand, Nikhil, Rohan, Udit, Hemant… well, the Gangstars can’t really ask for more this time. This is just the start what they would have wanted in the auctions. With two of their star players back and gotten two more, Gangstars were hung-ho during the first break.
The second part of the auctions was a little difficult for this team. This had much to do with the remaining funds (they had a total of 195 million remaining). The team composition was not much affected though they did not add even a single player till the next break. Most of the players that this team bid were taken, (read: stolen) by the other teams, because of the surplus funds they had.

A little tensed Gangstars dugout during the mid phase of the auctions

In the later part of the auctions, inevitably the team got their remaining players. Their much touted forward, Nithin was missed from the name list and this caused quite a bit of confusion in the ranks. After much deliberation, the other teams realized that they could not prevent Gangstars from taking him, as they had saved enough money to buy him. He was essentially the last buy in the auctions. Finally, Gangstars found a striker.
To put it simply, the auctions for Gangstars began and ended well, with some sorts of trouble in between. They should be proud of what they achieved in the auctions. The core of Gangstars team has been retained (Nikhil, Rohan, Anand, Viresh) got some seasoned players and a fair mix of first and second years, though the second years will be relied upon to take the team home all the time.

The Happy Gangstars dugout

NMSL debutant from Dream Kickers Vijayendra generously remarked after the auctions that ‘Gangstars is a really strong team’. He is right. If you want proof, wait for the famed Gangstars midfield to take the field! On paper, this team looks huge and terrifying. Will they retain the coveted title? Let’s wait and watch. All eyes on the ‘Stars’ gang once again!
NM Krusherz
“If the auction was a GD, surely they would have lost”
You should have seen it live, or believe what I am going to say… They did not buy even ONE person from pool A! I don’t know if it was part of their strategy or something, but surely this was not expected from Krusherz by the larger crowd. Tanuj Baru exclaimed ‘You’re not going to get any money back!’, ‘You know this isn’t REAL money, right?’ on two distinct occasions! Well… someone had to say it! In pool B too, Krusherz were not the ones who made the maximum purchase. They made 5, compared to 8 from Shooterzz. Probably they thought they had better players from pool C or that was their designs – couldn’t find any more logical reasoning on this front. Let’s look at the team.
Krusherz had retained two players – Neel and Archie. Okay, this might have limited their funds to some extent. Still, there was not much animation from Krusherz’s side in the beginning of the auctions. I had written earlier that this team was well positioned. Now, I am not so sure. Kedia and Co. might have had its own big plans for the night.

Come on guys, Bid!

Krusherz first picked Azeem, then Aditya Pawar, before getting a star junior in Dhruv Mehta. If at all Krusherz had some bright moments in the auctions, it was here. They got Dhruv and Geetansh in quick succession for 140 million and 130 million respectively. But not before some exhilarating moments. When they raised Geetansh’s bid to 130, the previous bid was only around 40; in fact they raised it to 90 and then to 130 on their own accord! The crowd gave a loud cheer. All said and done, Krusherz should be bolstered by the presence of Dhruv and Geetansh.

Some cheer in the camp during these fleeting moments…

Krusherz also managed to get Rohit Misra after some time. By the look of the team, it seems like Archie, Neel and Dhruv should score heavily to take the ship home. Geetansh should announce his arrival with a bang if he has to live up to the expectation built by Krusherz’s management team. The team not only has to score goals, but also has to defend well. On paper, this team looks just about there. But I hope to be proven wrong – just like Anand and Nikhil delivered for Gangstars last year, some first years in Krusherz’s ranks might steal the show, who knows.

“See you on the field – these two might be saying?”

In both these teams, the balance is qualitatively skewed towards second year players. What is clearly seen is that there’s not much confidence to be obtained from the first year, in terms of quantity. Hopefully the 2017 batch brings a lot of football players inside NMIMS!
More about the other three teams later! Until then, keep watching India vs Australia 3rd test…
Have a good time back home folks!