What’s the story?
A total of 66 out of the 352 players who went under the hammer in the 2017 auctions won themselves an IPL offer. While the rest can consider themselves unlucky, none will be as gutted as Madhya Pradesh batsman Harpreet Singh, for a case of mistaken identity has cost him a potential IPL berth.
“I am mentally disturbed. I have got a bad name. How can one clear that? I was hoping to be picked for the IPL auctions. When my name came, the franchise felt why take a player who is in police custody”, Harpreet Singh was quoted as saying to The Indian Express, after a misinformed tweet from a news agency resulted in wrong information being spread about the 25-year old, bringing an end to his IPL hopes for no fault of his.
In case you didn’t know…
Harmeet Singh, a former IPL and Mumbai Ranji player, had been arrested for driving his car into one of the platforms of the Andheri station in Mumbai. The Railway Protection Force had to arrest the cricketer after confiscating his vehicle.
However, a few news agencies mistook him to be Harpreet Singh, the 25-year old who had enlisted himself for the IPL 2017 auctions for a base price of Rs. 20 lakh, resulting him being ignored by the franchises.
The heart of the matter
When the news broke in, an Indian news agency tweeted that “Under-19 Harpreet Singh detained for driving a car straight into Andheri Police Station platform last night”. This came right in the midst of the barrage of tweets on the IPL auction.
Even though the gaffe was corrected later, Harpreet Singh’s name still popped up when the incident was searched on Google.
One of the franchise officials was quoted as saying that they wanted to buy Harpreet, but the news of the arrest sent their plans into tizzy and they decided not to go for him.
The news agency later sent out a correction tweet a day after the auction, but the damage had already been done.
What’s next?
Although the damage has been done, and Harpreet is “not bothered about the IPL now”, franchises might still rope him in if one of the originally listed players get injured. Having scored runs heavily in the Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy, Harpreet will now have to stay content with concentrating on the upcoming Vijay Hazare Trophy, where he will represent Madhya Pradesh.
Sportskeeda’s take
The grievous mistake by the news agency, which cost the talented the left-handed batsman a potential IPL berth, shows how, in today’s world of powerful social media, there is no margin for error, especially when the news is as critical as this one turned out to be.
For no fault of his, Harpreet had to pay the price for a series of events that unfolded in quick succession, that too at such a crucial time of his career. One can only hope that Harpreet can pull himself together and keep proving himself on the cricket field.
Also read: List of unsold players in IPL Auction 2017
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