The Hero Indian Super League (ISL) Auction and Draft was held on July 10 in Mumbai. We all know who the players were, we all know who the celebrities were, and we all know who hosted the event; but no auction is complete without the auctioneer! World renowned Briton Charlie Ross was our auctioneer on the morning as he successfully sold every player accompanied by his wit and charm. Despite his humble beginnings; selling poultry fresh out of school, Charlie has conducted sales in spectacular fashion. Charlie specialises in sporting objects and memorabilia – especially cricket, cars and Russian art. He ran his own saleroom for 25 years in Woburn. He even travelled the world making sales, like that of a catalogue of Jimi Hendrix’s songs and multi-million dollar cars. As a matter of fact Charlie holds the record for the highest price ever achieved for a car sold by auction in the USA. The car, a 1957 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa Prototype was sold for over $16 million. Another highlight of Charlie’s career was being on the rostrum for the sale of the Kilroy jewels — one of which, a single stone diamond ring, sold for £92,000. Let us aim to get into the shoes of an auctioneer and the strategy surrounding the concept of a player sale. Below are excerpts from his exclusive conversation with indiansuperleague.com You’re a world renowned auctioneer. What drew you to India and the Hero ISL?The invitation! The invitation from the League of the event! I think they saw a clip of me doing an auction of vintage cars in America and thought this is a man who can bring something to our auction, so they contacted me and I’ve never been here before so it’s a great experience. How was your first experience of India? It has been wonderful but certainly very limited. I arrived at the airport; then to the hotel by taxi. I’ve been nowhere so I can’t say I have seen India. What struck me is the friendliness of the people, it’s been absolutely delightful. Tell us a bit about your style as an auctioneer. I’m a believer that if somebody is enjoying the process, they will enter into it more wholeheartedly. If they’re relaxed and enjoying, they’ll think why not put another bid in. If they’re sitting down and it’s a bit slow and lacking humour, it’s easy to lose interest in the process. So I try to involve everybody, not just the bidder but everyone in the room so they feel part of it. Then, you’ll get a better atmosphere and the prices will go up. How easy or difficult is it to get the bidders out of their pre-meditated strategies? I think however much people formulate a plan, once the heat of the bidding is underway it’s relatively easy. I think people set a ceiling price, let’s say 40 lakhs. Well once they’ve got to 40, my view is, “Hang on, they want to buy this player; they thought 40 was their ceiling but what’s 41, 42, 43? Not even 10 percent, is it?” And no one wants to be an under bidder. You either want to buy the player or at least have a crack at it. A lot of people want to hold back. Sometimes, the best thing to do at an auction is to go in fast and strong, so people will think, “Hang on, he’s so keen, I don’t want to compete”. But when the process slows down, the price ends up increasing. The teams are reacting to the situation. No one was setting the pace... I think that’s right and I think the base price was set at a sensible level. If the expectancy is too high, the room can get dull, whereas if you get instant bidding then there’s an atmosphere straight away. Everybody sits up. You know money is going to change hands. You have been an auctioneer for a while. What do you think of the Draft? I think it’s fascinating, but what’s quite interesting is that the picks of the players are very straightforward. But then again there’s an invitation to negotiate which seems to be in every case. Once a team has decided on a player, no amount of money is going to take him away because he fits in perfectly with the team’s plans. So it’s a great idea – the negotiation – but invariably people are happy with their player and that’s the reason they’ve chosen him.
