Bangladesh’s Mushfiqur Rahim has said that going unsold in the recent IPL auction is not something that has bothered him, and that his focus his already shifted to the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL).
Both Rahim and his compatriot, fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman went unsold at the auction, while Pat Cummins became the highest paid overseas player in the league after he was bought for 15.5 crore by Kolkata Knight Riders. “Things like this (being picked or snubbed in the IPL auction table) either happen or they don’t but it doesn’t bother me too much,” Mushfiqur said. “I had some hope but it didn’t happen. Life moves on. I have never taken it seriously. Now we are playing in BPL and I want to focus on it.”
Rahim also revealed that he was not keen on putting his name into the auction, but did so after some interest by the IPL authorities. “To be honest, I didn’t want to send my name at first because I thought no one is going to pick me. So there was no point in keeping my name there,” he said.
But when they (IPL authorities) sent in the request, I thought there may be some chance this time. It did not happen but it is not in my control. It is not a big issue for me. I don’t know a lot about it. I got to know from (media) about which franchises might be interested. I don’t know anything other than that.”
Rahim has not played in the IPL so far, while the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) had allowed Mustafizur to be a part of the auction with the view of getting a shot at regaining lost form if he was picked by one of the franchises.
