IPL fans and followers often wonder whether players' prices are related to their performances. The analysis below shows that there is no such systematic relationship. Nor do auction prices completely reflect the past IPL performances of players.
Compared here are the purchase prices of the eight highest paid players and their performances. Both are relative to the team averages in the 2011 and 2012 editions.
More than two-thirds of the players in this group are predominantly batsmen.
As well, it is also hard to classify all-rounders such as the Pathan brothers or Ravindra Jadeja who are more valuable to their teams as batsmen but can bowl when needed.
Graphs 1 and 2 show that in 2011, the relative batting average of the three least paid players – Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, and M. S. Dhoni – is higher than the rest. However, the strike rates (S/R) exhibit great variation – for instance, Table 1 shows that Tendulkar's S/R is three percentage points lower than the team's S/R, while Sehwag's is about 56 percentage points higher than the team's.
At the same time, graphs 3 and 4 show that among players auctioned in 2012 the least and highest paid players (i.e., Hodge and Jadeja, respectively) have the top two relative batting averages in 2011, compared to the rest in the group. However, the strike rates are comparable across players (with the exception of Vinay Kumar, R. P. Singh and Thisara Perera, who are predominantly bowlers).
These two results (along with Tables 1 and 2) indicate that there is not necessarily a systematic relationship between price and performance of players, and that the auction prices do not completely reflect the past IPL performances of players.
Purchase Price Ratio (PPR) of players: The ratio of each player's purchase price to the team's total purchase price of all its players (which is capped at $9 million)
Batting Average Ratio (BAR): Ratio of the batsman's average to the team average
Strike Rate Ratio (SRR): Ratio of the batsman's strike rate to the average team strike rate
Typically, values over 100 for BAR and SRR indicates that the respective player's average and strike rate is better than that of his team, and vice versa.
The raw statistics of bowling average and economy rates are presented.
The values in red in the tables indicate a less favourable performance of the specific player compared to that of his team.
(Note: Sunil Naraine, who is the fifth highest paid player in 2012, is left out of the analysis as he has not participated in previous IPL editions.)