A Novel Approach for Performance Analysis and Optimal Selection of Players in Indian Premier League Auction

Abstract

In the Indian Premier League (IPL), team owners build their cricket team by buying players in the IPL auction. Before the auction begins, the teams have the liberty to retain some of its previously auctioned players in the past IPL season. The rest of the players are available for selection via auction. Initially, all the owners of the teams have the same limited amount of funds to build their team. Naturally, the more players an owner retains, the lesser funds the owner would have to enter into the auction. Therefore, the decision of retaining players has to be perfect for an optimal selection of retaining players as well as selection of players in the auction. We analyze the requirement of the structure of the team, based on voids created due to the remaining players after the selective retaining process. For an optimal decision making in the auction, we define the size and type of voids clearly, which helps the owner select the best combination of players in the auction. Our proposed method attempts to ensure that the owner will be aware of his next steps clearly, he or she buys a player in the auction and direct their funds to buy specifically those players that will fill the voids in the team. We compute Most Valuable Player (MVP) by using player’s batting points, bowling points and player experience. After obtaining the MVP values, we classify the players by using decision tree approach. Further, we try to find out the players responsible for success of the team and how any two players tend to play in an IPL match.