Mumbai, India – Mallika Sagar’s introduction to the world of auctioneering got here when, as an adolescent in her hometown Mumbai, she learn a ebook with a feminine auctioneer as its protagonist.
“And, perhaps, a bit frivolously, I thought: ‘That’s what I want to be,’” she recollects with a chuckle.
Three many years on, Sagar finds herself on the helm of constructing historical past.
After a profitable 23-year profession in artwork auctioneering, she is ready to turn out to be the primary feminine auctioneer on the richest franchise cricket league on the earth when she takes the stage on the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) 2024 public sale in Dubai on Tuesday.
Greater than 300 cricketers will go beneath the hammer throughout the daylong occasion, which can be a breakaway from a pattern that has seen solely males – Welshman Richard Madley, Briton Hugh Edmeades and India’s Charu Sharma – spearhead the occasion.
“It’s extremely exciting to be asked to conduct an IPL auction,” Sagar advised Al Jazeera throughout an hourlong chat at her Mumbai workplace final week.
Sagar was born right into a enterprise household within the capital of India’s Maharashtra state and has lived within the metropolis since her return, from the US, the place she graduated with a level within the historical past of artwork.
Now a specialist in fashionable artwork and an auctioneer at a privately-owned Mumbai-based public sale home, she has lengthy been a pathbreaker on the worldwide artwork auctioneering circuit. In 2001, she turned the primary feminine auctioneer of Indian origin on the worldwide artwork and luxurious enterprise Christie’s.
‘All about personality and skills’
Clad in a yellow drop-waist gown and with a cup of inexperienced tea in hand, Sagar defined how auctioneering is extra all the way down to character and expertise than gender.
“You could be the most engaging male auctioneer, the most boring female auctioneer or vice versa – it’s about personality and skills.”
The 48-year-old has been chargeable for wielding the gavel at each the participant auctions for the Girls’s Premier League (WPL), India’s IPL-style five-team franchise event for ladies.
“Sport is gendered, so to be part of something where women cricketers have a platform at the highest level and the chance to be financially independent doing what they love, was really special.”
Being one of many few feminine auctioneers in India, Sagar acknowledged that the inaugural WPL public sale in February might have been an unwitting stepping stone to carry her to the IPL public sale, a much more scaled-up affair than its WPL equal.
Studying the ropes – with kabaddi
Sagar’s first stint at sport auctioneering got here on the eighth version of the Professional Kabaddi League (PKL), an Indian males’s skilled franchise kabaddi event that ranks second behind the IPL most-watched sports activities league within the nation.
She admits sport auctioneering “was a new world” for her, given her longstanding affiliation with artwork.
“It did take a little bit of training, largely to change my approach,” she stated.
So what does it take to make a great auctioneer?
“Depending on what you’re selling, you have to learn the mechanics of the auctioneering process and blend it with math, theatre and drama – all wrapped up in a smile!”
The PKL expertise, she stated, warmed her up for the cricket auctions.
Regardless of a foray into sport, steering a cricket public sale on the WPL proved to be a special ball sport.
The size of operations, together with the necessities of catching the producer’s cue within the ear throughout stay broadcast, added a special dimension to the job.
‘Can’t let your nervousness take over your job’
Sagar describes a typical public sale as an “unknown” because it unfolds in actual time.
Those in cricket typically include last-minute mic-ups or touchups with the make-up, frenzied bidding wars traversing a number of events or, one thing as seemingly easy-to-do as determining the place the franchises are seated based mostly on the draw that allots them their order. Their dynamism warrants vital focus and suppleness.
“You have to be alert and adaptable,” she stated. “At instances, regardless of your finest efforts, there may be errors. You might get a syllable incorrect when calling out lots of of names. It’s finest to acknowledge the error, apologise, repair it, and transfer on.
“Regardless of the situation, you can’t panic. You cannot let your nervousness take over your job. Having composure as part of your skillset is a must.”
Sagar swears by train and yoga to refuel quietude and power of physique and thoughts.
“There’s nothing a downward dog or a headstand doesn’t fix,” she quipped. On public sale eve, she retires early to keep away from psychological exhaustion throughout the all-important hours on the job the subsequent day.
The bedrock of a well-run public sale, in her view, is being as even-keel as potential as an auctioneer, regardless of the stature of the gamers on provide.
“It’s important to present a newcomer with the same amount of energy as you would a star player,” she stated.
Among the many different non-negotiables, Sagar locations the utmost premium on understanding the topic – the order of the units of gamers, just like items of artwork.
“You’ve got to pace out each name well and give it enough time,” she stated. “Particularly, when there’s a flurry of bids for them.
“And when the frenzy slows down, give it a few seconds and ask the room, ‘Everybody sure? Last chance if you’d like to bid?’ Whether in art or cricket, rapid changes such as a last-minute raise of the paddle or a new entrant coming in are a given. It’s your job to factor them all in.”
Has her preparation for the IPL public sale been any totally different from the WPL’s?
“No, because the basic formats are the same,” Sagar defined. “The key is to make sure you are familiar with the names. You don’t want to destroy someone’s name who’s coming up on a platform as prestigious as this – it’s their moment of glory, after all.”
On Tuesday, as Sagar reels off over 300 such names, it is going to be as a lot her second within the solar as theirs.
