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Tendulkar unhappy with fresh IPL player auction

Sachin Tendulkar, the Mumbai Indians captain, has expressed his disappointment at the prospect of his team being broken up ahead of the IPL player auction in November

Sachin Tendulkar is not happy about most of the Mumbai players having to go into the auction  •  AFP

Sachin Tendulkar is not happy about most of the Mumbai players having to go into the auction  •  AFP

Sachin Tendulkar, the Mumbai Indians captain, has expressed his disappointment at the prospect of his team being broken up ahead of the IPL player auction in November. Tendulkar said the Mumbai franchise had worked hard to build its team and it was "tough to accept" that the composition had to change.
"I feel it is about building teams, not breaking teams," Tendulkar said. "We have really worked hard to build this team and have got together brilliantly. In the third year we held a couple of camps, which had nothing to do with cricket. It was just about getting together and building team spirit.
"Right from the management and the owners, Mr and Mrs Ambani, they have all put in a lot of effort along with the players, and then you realise that the team has to change. It's tough to accept that."
The Mumbai Indians were the first IPL side to be eliminated from the Champions League Twenty20 in South Africa and have probably played their last competitive game together. Under the new IPL regulations, each of the eight franchises that participated in the 2010 season can retain up to four players, only three of whom can be Indians. All the other international capped players, as well as those who have played 75% of their side's IPL matches in 2010, will be part of the auction.
"I don't know, it's not my job to figure what's right or wrong, but I feel if a player is happy to play for a particular team, it's good he stays with that team," Tendulkar said, when asked if he was happy with the retention formula. "There's some sort of identity with that team. We have a huge following now and it's also an attachment with a particular team."
Rahul Dravid, the Royal Challengers Bangalore batsman, however, has offered a different point of view. He said that since two new franchises - Pune and Kochi - had been added to the IPL, increasing the number of teams to ten, the majority of the players had to go into the auction. "One has to understand that two more teams are entering the IPL," Dravid said last week, "and the beauty of the IPL is that it's very competitive, anyone can win.
"We don't want to end up in a situation like in the Premiership [English Premier League] where only three or four teams can win the tournament. It's an even playing field. I like the concept of everyone having a chance to do well as it raises the level of the tournament. It raises the interest levels also."