Kochi Tuskers Kerala in the IPL

A squad from nothing

Kochi Tuskers Kerala were one of two franchises added for 2011, and arrived at the mega auction with no players at all. They bought sixteen, more than almost anyone, with Mahela Jayawardene the most expensive and made captain. Muttiah Muralitharan, VVS Laxman, Brendon McCullum, Sreesanth and a young Ravindra Jadeja were also in the squad, which made Kochi one of the most recognisable teams in the league on paper.

One season

Playing most of its home matches at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi, the side finished in the bottom half of the ten-team table. Off it, the owners could not meet the league's financial requirements, and in September 2011 the franchise was terminated. Its players went back into the pool, Jadeja moving to Chennai in 2012. Kochi remains the only franchise to have played a single IPL season. The other franchise added in 2011, Pune Warriors India, lasted three.

The squad on paper

Kochi bought sixteen players at the 2011 mega auction for a little over ₹34 crore. Jayawardene cost the most and scored 299 runs; Ravindra Jadeja, bought for ₹4.28 crore, made 283 runs and took eight wickets; R. P. Singh took 13 wickets. Muttiah Muralitharan, near the end of his career, played five matches. Parthiv Patel, bought for ₹1.3 crore, scored 202 runs, and Sreesanth, who cost ₹4.05 crore, took seven wickets.

It was a squad of established names more than a balanced side, and the results reflected it. The tables below show a franchise that spent a little less than its fellow newcomer Pune and finished a place above them.

Where Kochi's players went

Kochi's end shows how much talent it had gathered. At the 2012 auction, four of the six most expensive players sold had played for Kochi the season before: Jadeja to Chennai for US$2 million, the top price, Jayawardene to Delhi, Brendon McCullum to Kolkata and Parthiv Patel to Deccan. A franchise that lasted a single season shaped the next auction more than any other.

Kochi in CricArcade

In IPL Dynasty you can start in 2011 as Kochi Tuskers Kerala, with the real squad the franchise built at its only auction, and find out what a team with Jayawardene, Jadeja, McCullum and Muralitharan might have done with more than one season. It is one of the more unusual starting points the game offers: a squad with no history behind it and, in reality, none ahead of it either.