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The most valuable IPL players over the years

April 04, 2012 16:43 IST

Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji look back at the four earlier editions of the IPL and see which players were most valuable, and offered the best value for money

As another IPL gets ready to take off, it might be a good idea to look back at the four earlier editions and see which players were most valuable, and offered the best value for money.

To determine the most valuable players, we look at the most valuable player index (MVPI) which collapses a player's batting, bowling and fielding performance into a single statistic  -- which we could continue to call  'runs' (within quotes).

We have found that a good way to measure a player's value is to use the paisa vasool index. To calculate the paisa vasool index, we divide a player's salary by his MVPI. For example, Kallis' MVPI, totaled over the 16 matches he was available for in IPL3, was 780 'runs'. His IPL3 price was $900,000. After dividing $900,000 by 780 we get 1153. For every 'run' that Kallis scored, he earned $1153!

A paisa vasool index of 1153 constitutes a very good performance. After tracking the paisa vasool index, which we shall henceforth abbreviate to PVI, we have concluded that a PVI of 1500 is a kind of par for IPL players who come in via the auction route.'

In the four tables below, we list the 25 most valuable players of the four previous IPLs and their PVI.

IPL1 in 2008

Rank Player Name Team From Runs Strike Rate W Eco M MVPI PVI
1 Shane Watson RR AUS 472 151.8 17 7.1 15 876 143
2 S Jayasuriya MI SL 514 166.3 4 7.6 14 729 1337
3 Yusuf Pathan RR IND 435 179.0 8 8.2 16 697 681
4 Shaun Marsh KXI AUS 616 139.7 0 - 11 672 45
5 V Sehwag DD IND 406 185.4 3 12.1 14 575 1450
6 Gautam Gambhir DD IND 534 140.9 0 - 14 571 1270
7 Albie Morkel CSK SA 241 147.9 17 8.3 13 534 1218
8 Suresh Raina CSK IND 421 142.7 1 9.0 16 525 1237
9 Sohail Tanvir RR PAK 36 124.1 24 6.5 11 505 170
10 Rohit Sharma DC IND 404 148.0 1 6.3 13 499 1503
11 Adam Gilchrist DC AUS 436 137.1 0 - 14 492 1423
12 MS Dhoni CSK IND 414 133.5 0 - 16 471 3187
13 Irfan Pathan KXI IND 131 112.9 15 6.6 14 468 1975
14  Maharoof DD SL 125 158.2 15 6.9 10 452 498
15 Yuvraj Singh KXI IND 299 162.5 3 9.3 14 449 2371
16 Sourav Ganguly KKR IND 349 113.7 6 6.4 13 437 2502
17 Shane Warne RR AUS 70 118.6 19 7.8 15 417 1078
18 K Sangakkara KXI SL 320 161.6 0 - 10 408 1716
19 Graeme Smith RR SA 441 121.8 0 - 11 407 1000
20 Shaun Pollock MI SA 147 132.4 11 6.7 13 394 1395
21 Piyush Chawla KXI IND 90 152.5 18 8.9 15 390 1027
22 Manpreet Gony CSK IND 35 184.2 17 7.4 16 378 79
23 Dwayne Bravo MI WI 178 132.8 11 8.2 9 372 259
24 Rahul Dravid RCB IND 371 124.5 0 - 14 361 2870
25 S Asnodkar RR IND 311 133.5 0 - 9 331 91

IPL2 in 2009 (in South Africa)

Rank Player Name Team From Runs Strike Rate W Eco M MVPI PVI
1 Adam Gilchrist DC AUS 495 152.3 0 - 16 753 956
2 M Hayden CSK AUS 572 144.8 0 - 12 678 537
3 Suresh Raina CSK IND 434 140.9 7 5.9 14 667 975
4 AB de Villiers DD SA 512 130.6 0 - 15 609 500
5 Rohit Sharma DC IND 326 115.2 11 7 16 510 1513
6 Brad Hodge KKR AUS 365 117.7 7 8.1 12 467 208
7 Irfan Pathan KXI IND 196 124.1 17 7.7 14 453 2042
8 J-P Duminy MI SA 372 114.5 4 5.8 13 450 2083
9  Yuvraj Singh KXI IND 340 115.3 6 7.1 14 444 2394
10 Anil Kumble RCB IND 16 84.2 21 5.9 16 436 1180
11 Dinesh Karthik DD IND 288 132.7 0 - 15 433 1231
12 A Symonds DC AUS 249 150 7 6.7 8 420 1655
13 Yusuf Pathan RR IND 243 132.8 7 6.9 13 412 1136
14 Jacques Kallis RCB SA 362 109 6 7.7 15 411 2221
15 T Dilshan DD SL 371 122 0 6.1 14 408 613
16 RP Singh DC IND 8 47.1 23 7 16 406 2218
17 MS Dhoni CSK IND 332 127.2 0 - 14 400 3752
18 Dwayne Bravo MI WI 218 107.4 11 7.8 10 395 358
19 Ravindra Jadeja RR IND 295 110.9 6 6.5 13 395 75
20 Harbhajan Singh MI IND 84 158.5 12 5.8 13 383 2189
21 Sachin Tendulkar MI IND 364 120.1 0 9.7 13 375 2945
22 M Muralitharan CSK SL 8 100 14 5.2 13 361 1638
23 Ashish Nehra DD IND 1 100 19 6.8 12 349 1113
24 Lasith Malinga MI SL 0 0 18 6.3 13 344 1004
25 Herschelle Gibbs DC SA 328 107.5 0 - 14 341 1685

IPL3 in 2010

Rank Player Name Team From Runs Strike Rate W Eco M MVPI PVI
1 Suresh Raina CSK IND 524 143.6 6 7.5 16 784 829
2 Jacques Kallis RCB SA 572 115.8 13 8.4 16 780 1153
3 Kieron Pollard MI WI 273 185.7 15 7.4 14 772 972
4 Andrew Symonds DC AUS 429 125.8 12 7 16 755 1787
5 Sachin Tendulkar MI IND 618 132.9 0 - 15 631 1777
6 Yusuf Pathan RR IND 333 165.7 5 7.2 14 589 806
7 Murali Vijay CSK IND 458 156.8 0 - 15 588 85
8 Robin Uthappa RCB IND 376 172.5 0 - 16 581 1376
9 Irfan Pathan KXI IND 276 148.4 15 9.2 14 579 1599
10 Harbhajan Singh MI IND 105 166.7 17 7 15 557 1526
11 M Jayawardene KXI SL 439 147.3 0 - 13 536 887
12 Virender Sehwag DD IND 356 163.3 3 4.1 14 514 1623
13 Rohit Sharma DC IND 404 133.8 2 8.1 16 499 1502
14 Ambati Rayudu MI IND 356 144.7 0 - 14 489 61
15 K Sangakkara KXI SL 357 138.9 0 - 13 486 1439
16 Amit Mishra DD IND 39 76.5 17 6.8 14 481 62
17 Pragyan Ojha DC IND 3 37.5 21 7.3 16 477 63
18 Sourav Ganguly KKR IND 493 117.7 0 10.8 14 471 2318
19 Albie Morkel CSK SA 198 151.1 11 8.5 14 471 1381
20 Naman Ojha RR IND 377 132.3 0 - 14 452 66
21 Anil Kumble RCB IND 6 54.5 17 6.4 16 452 1106
22 Saurabh Tiwary MI IND 419 135.6 0 - 16 451 89
23 Adam Gilchrist DC AUS 289 156.2 0 - 16 446 1568
24 MS Dhoni CSK IND 287 136.7 0 - 13 425 3529
25 CH Gayle KKR WI 292 158.7 4 9.5 9 405 1553

IPL4 in 2011

Rank Player Name Team From Runs Strike  Rate W Eco M MVPI PVI
1 CH Gayle RCB WI 608 183.1 8 6.8 12 953 240
2 Lasith Malinga MI SL 8 88.9 28 6 16 629 738
3 Yusuf Pathan KKR IND 283 140.8 13 6.1 15 608 3207
4 Paul Valthaty KXI IND 463 137 7 7.8 14 600 73
5 Shaun Marsh KXI AUS 504 146.5 0 - 14 573 698
6 Virender Sehwag DD IND 424 176.7 0 - 11 564 3191
7 Virat Kohli RCB IND 557 121.1 2 8.2 16 558 2997
8 MS Dhoni CSK IND 392 158.7 0 - 16 551 3035
9 Yuvraj Singh PWS IND 343 131.4 9 6.6 14 550 3273
10 Suresh Raina CSK IND 438 134.8 4 7.3 16 546 2212
11 Jacques Kallis KKR SA 424 112.2 7 7.1 15 522 1957
12 Shane Watson RR AUS 330 130.4 6 6.7 11 490 2276
13 Sachin Tendulkar MI IND 553 113.3 0 - 16 487 3430
14 Ravindra Jadeja KTK IND 283 124.1 8 7.3 14 465 2043
15 R Ashwin CSK IND 2 33.3 20 6.2 16 456 1731
16 Michael Hussey CSK AUS 492 118.8 0 - 14 456 865
17 Amit Mishra DC IND 68 138.8 19 6.7 14 451 665
18 Munaf Patel MI IND 0 0 22 6.6 15 439 1480
19 Adam Gilchrist KXI AUS 383 129.8 0 - 14 437 2061
20 Murali Vijay CSK IND 434 128 0 - 16 436 1917
21 Shikhar Dhawan DC IND 400 129 1 5.5 14 432 695
22 Rahul Sharma PWS IND 24 114.3 16 5.5 14 431 51
23 Harbhajan Singh MI IND 103 145.1 14 7 15 413 2921
24 K Sangakkara DC SL 358 122.2 0 - 13 409 1710
25 Jesse Ryder PWS NZ 292 148.2 4 7.7 13 406 369

 

Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji