IPL 8: Yuvraj's auction price was market determined, says Daredevils CEO

New Delhi Delhi Daredevils CEO Hemant Dua yesterday said that it was IPL market that decided Yuvraj Singhs price of Rs 16 crore and the franchise is firmly backing theageing star despite his failure to turn the teams fortunes in the ongoing eighth edition of the leagueYuvraj SinghYuvraj has managed only 205 runs at a dismal average of 1863 from 12 games and DD are practically out of contention for a place in the playoff I think we talk about Rs 14 croreRs 16 crore but thats all a market place As Yuvraj had rightly said in Vizag that he never asked for that price It was a market place DD CEODua told PTI during an interaction where he analysed the teams performance in the current season He did state that they would have ideally liked to gethim for lesser amount but once bidding started they had to go all outWould we have liked it to be Rs 16 crores No as a franchise I would want it to be as less as possible right But there is an opposition rival franchises which is there and they want the price to go up So as I said it was market determined Dua explained While Dua made it clear that the franchise is behind Yuvraj he did admit that constant reminder of a big price tag affects the player as they are also human at the end of the dayAt the end of day the hype created especially by the social media starts hurting a player and his conscience You have to understand that players are also human beings Emotions outbursts on failure from all side is bound to affect a player and however big you are you are only human That burden does come in somewhere Dua said batting for the elegant lefthander who is now past his prime He is confident that Yuvraj will come out of his bad patchBeing a player that he is he will overcome it and as a franchise we support him wherever we can We dont see that as his fault He is here to perform and is trying his best the CEO added Asked if Yuvraj and Zaheer Khan was in DDs longterm plans considering their age the CEO seemed noncommittal If they are fit and happy to play we have no problems But when their bodies give signals it is completely upto them A career decision is taken by the individual himself and I amno one to comment on that he saidDelhi Daredevils have been short of top grade current India player save Mohammed Shami who is injured but the CEO didnt buy the argument that Retention Policy is hurting their cause badly Would it have been different had DD been able to lay their hands on reigning superstars like Virat Kohli or an Ajinkya Rahane Dua sounded dismissive On a particular day anybody can be a superstarT20 is not about a superstar and it is more about collective performances that help a team to cross the line I dont know whether retention policy hurt us or not But for me patience is the name of the game I would urge all our fans to be patient It takes time to rebuild I am not going to dwell on what happened in the past the DD top boss said Dua said that their team is getting closer towards being stableMost of the other squads are stable and our rebuilding process has kind of finished Probably one more year and we will be back in the charts He also differed from the popular notion that DDs penchant for changing squads every year is hurting them We did change our squad in 2013 and that was needed at that time Last year we kept a core of 11 players and changed rest So there is a progression there We will have a very few changes here and there next seasonAsked about the ongoing season where the team has lost eight of the 12 games the official termed it as a season of missed opportunities I think closing was an issue and that happens in any game If we win the last two games and finish on 12 points I would term it as a good comeback from last year We had limited resources available at auction We lost four close games two in the beginning and the last two games Had we won those close matches it would have been different Ourtime will comeHe was quick to admit that Shamis injury hurt their chances badly as it affected the playing combination If we had Shami we would have had the flexibility ofplaying the international players that we wanted to play Our bowling would have strengthened But now we had to look at international players from bowling aspect Look at the changes that happened once Zaheer Khan came into the squad He immediately made an impact Somehow luck was also not on our side as we failed to turn individual brilliance into collective brilliance concluded Dua