Mahenga found it laughable that Economic Times is calculating how mahenga(costly) is the IPL run. They have worked out that Abhishek Nayar, Shane Watson and Yusuf Pathan are providing runs at a much cheap price than Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Andrew Symonds and Rahul Dravid.

Did the franchises got it wrong and paid way more than the players’ worth. From economic times formula it can be deduced that Jaysurya who was paid around four crores have to score twenty times what Nayar(20 Lacs) scores to payback his worth. For Nayar’s 100 runs so far in the competition, Jaysurya already has a payback bill of 2000 runs!

Economic Times calculations are on assumption that franchise’s did their bidding on the basis of how many runs/wickets these players will be providing. Only economists can think like that. But franchise owners are not economists but marketers and businesses. They know much more than economists. Ricky Ponting was as well wondering how Symmo is so much worth than him. Were franchises bidding thinking that Symmonds will make much more runs than Ricky. No!

Does that then mean runs from certain players are worth more than runs from others. Is one run from Jaysurya 20 times more of value than Nayar’s run. Cricket followers and economists will say no, run is a run whoever scores it. But the Ambanis and Mallyas will think differently. Economists are saying how costly Sachin is turning to be for Mumbai. Ambani will disagree. As you are suspecting it is brand that carries the price.

Talking of Indian players we can understand they have a brand value. But what about Symonds why he carries a higher price tag than his captain. Mahenga suspects it was the monkey-gate that got him that price. Monkey-gate provided him visibility in India. With monkey gate he got his brand (read bad) name.

This theory can be applied on the latest slap-gate. Do you suspect Sree and Bhajji’s price will be reduced come the next IPL season. Mahenga doesn’t think so. Come the next year and the player transfers. Same Punjab team who are upset with Bhajji will be going after him again and Mumbai will make their money out of it. Ambani will get his dues out of even an injured Sachin. Economists will continue their bid to try to make sense out of cost of each run while Ambani’s and Mallya will continue to make money.