Had I not been at home recovering from a fall, I wouldn’t have been at the IPL auction: Charu Sharma

It wasn’t just the unfortunate fall of the auctioneer Hugh Edmeades that got me into the IPL auction but also another injury – to my right shoulder – that brought about this strange happening. I had fallen in Kathmandu where I had gone for an auction for a cricket league and damaged my shoulder. There was some rain and I fell at the place where I was staying. I have been at home now for weeks, getting my physiotherapy done; if it were not for that fall, I would have been in a golf course playing – it’s my passion these days and I spend hours at a golf course – and would have had no access to my phone. And (IPL chairman) Brijesh Patel couldn’t have reached me. He knew I was a professional auctioneer and that’s why he called me.

Not just the injury, you happen to be in Bangalore and your home is around the bend from the hotel of the IPL auction!

Indeed! Brijesh calls and goes, “where are you?” I am at home, and I think he is calling about some KSCA (Karnataka State Cricket Association) function or some such in the future. “Can you get to ITC Gardenia right now?” Which happens to be next door. I say, ‘what?’ as I hadn’t been watching the auction and had no idea what had transpired. “The auctioneer has collapsed,” he goes. Oh Damn. “Get a coat and run in!” I met up with him, and Hemang Amin the CEO who briefed me and Dev who is the producer of the telecast, who I knew from before. “It’s all easy-peasy for you. Cameras are here, and I will be in your ear!” That’s when it struck me that I had forgotten my ear piece at home – I have a piece specially moulded to my ear. So I call my wife who goes, “what did you forget this time?!” So, she arranges for the ear piece to be delivered. That’s it. I am on.

How heartening it is to see Mr. Hugh Edmeades – the IPL Auctioneer – back on the podium! 😊 👏

A round of applause for Mr. Charu Sharma, who took over the Auction proceedings in the absence of Mr. Hugh Edmeades. 👏 👏#TATAIPLAuction @TataCompanies pic.twitter.com/d2AlKH2PYo

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) February 13, 2022

Do you have any special prep-up technique or a routine that you do before getting on stage? Here, it was all rushed anyway. What’s the biggest challenge in auctioneering?

Nah, I don’t have one. Just a little word to myself that ‘keep it straight, keep it quick, keep it a bit light and humourous’. The auction itself isn’t such a big deal. Let me be honest, I don’t think it’s some real tough job. The context was a bit unusual of course and the producer told me we are in the middle of a bid for Wanindu Hasaranga. I tell him, “don’t worry, it’s all par for the course for me.” And this auction was well-structured anyway.

The big thing is how much time do you wait for a bid to come through? For the teams to come up with the numbers. You can’t rush them too much and you can’t wait eternally. That’s the only kind of the narrow fulcrum that one has to understand. It’s the IPL, the owners are high-profile – not that one needs to be too bothered about that as how does it matter whether you are speaking to two people or two billion; you have to do a professional job. Only thing is that I had to be a touch more generous as these are high-stakes yaar in the IPL. You don’t want to be cruel or brutal. But there are so many players to go through; so you can’t waste time either. That comes with experience.

You mentioned humour in this high-pressure scenario. Do you have any go-to stock stuff?

Ha ha. No, because the minute you get into pre-set stuff, you tend to get locked-in and the flow is disrupted. I like to be open, free-spirited. If you don’t have spontaneity, you are restricting yourself. You get away from that moment, which isn’t ideal. The fakeness will come through. It’s my way of life that I want to walk into situations with an absolutely clean clear slate. It has worked for me so far. Else, you get found out pretty quickly.

Maybe because I am a professional auctioneer, but I think it’s highly overrated. I understand and feel thankful that I have got a deluge of calls and texts because of the context I suppose but I am talking about the skill in itself. And I am not being modest. It’s mainly a simple job here.

A huge round of applause for Charu Sharma who stepped in at the last minute and conducted the #IPLMegaAuction seamlessly. 👏🏻

Respect to Hugh Edmeades who came back out and conducted the last couple of rounds effortlessly. 🤩🙌🏻#PlayBold #WeAreChallengers #IPL2022 #IPLAuction pic.twitter.com/2u0lJ5fyE7

— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) February 13, 2022

Do you think you slipped up on any occasion in the last two days? It wasn’t visible to us, but internally something that made you go, ‘aargh’?

I would like to believe I can honestly say no. There was this one time for an uncapped player when Chennai Super Kings came one microsecond later after I had said passed. Then they said hello hello, and I said, I will allow that as no one else was bidding anyways and this is a matter of life and career for the athlete as well, who otherwise would go unsold. They bid 20 (lakh), the minimum, and they took the player. If there are multiple interests, then you can’t do this. It won’t be fair on the team that has already bid. One of the basic requirements for an auctioneer is to be fair and unbiased; you have to feel and be more unbiased than the queen.

You were involved with the IPL before as CEO of RCB in 2008 before you were unceremoniously sacked by Vijay Mallya. How did you shrug that off? It couldn’t have been easy.

I have a laidback light approach to life, that helped me I guess. Even as I say that, it was four days to a week of a really dark period. It troubled me as my father had died at the start of that tournament. There was so much work with the IPL that I could barely even go help my brother, who graciously said, ‘go do the IPL, I shall take care.’ So that was churning in the background; I had given three-four months of my life to it. I worked harder than ever before in my life. Then to be treated the way I was; it was brutal. I was pretty upset and down for a while. Life is so much bigger, I have so many interests – and all that realisation begins to seep in and that’s how I got over that.

I remember my wife was so delighted with the phase after that. I have never been so loved by my wife as I was in that phase! Because she had warned me, going into that IPL job, ‘don’t take it. Don’t enter this cauldron. Don’t work with him. What are you doing?’ I would say, ‘leave it to me, it’s only cricket, I will be okay!’ And after that she told me, ‘see I told you!” [laughs].

Two things did pain me. I had thrown everything into it. Had the responsibility to take everybody along. Then I got cut off so brutally. That experience skewed something somewhere as I seem to have lost the relations that I had with the (television) channels. After having worked so much, over so many critical events, but after this IPL, for some strange reason, the channels treated me as a persona non-grata.

Then I focussed on the Pro Kabaddi League in 2009-10 and that came to fruition later in 2014. I had to turn down a few offers then and you know in television, less you work, lesser work you get.

“I focussed on the Pro Kabaddi League in 2009-10 and that came to fruition later in 2014,” said Charu Sharma. (Twitter/Charu Sharma)

You worked on the kabaddi league with your brother-in-law (industrialist Anand Mahindra). It’s a tournament you cherish a lot.

It was my passion area and Anand said why don’t we do a league. It was a lot of hard work but we got our own country’s unique heritage back in the sunshine. That kabaddi league is something I am proud of.

You began broadcasting in the 1982 Asian Games just after your sporting career.

Yes, I was the junior champion for seven years from the age of 11. I can safely say that later I was among the top three springboard divers in the country, the first two were from the army and were backed. I had qualified for the Commonwealth Games 1978 but had to give up as I had to go at my own expense. I had done well in the diving sport and quit at the ripe age of 19! There wasn’t much left to do there. I was also a first-division cricketer in Kolkata. The broadcasting career started and it took off once the country liberalised and more networks began to come in the 90’s.

When people call me for work, I jump and am ready to do it. If they don’t come, I am equally happy to play golf and tennis and shoot the breeze with my friends.

Looking back, how do you assess your career – sporting one in the teens, then broadcaster, CEO, auctioneer … ?

This moment 📸📸 – A fitting wrap to the 2022 #TATAIPLAuction 🤜🤛 pic.twitter.com/kxImZVdRms

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) February 14, 2022

I have been a child of immense good fortune – and I mean it. By sitting around, zero ambition really, by not wanting things desperately, so many things have come to me. I have had such a blessed life that it’s not even funny. Sometimes, you have to admire people who go out, have a drive, a dream and get it. I am quite the opposite, laidback. I don’t want to reach anywhere; let the things that come to me, come. And when they come, they are sweet! I suppose there is no weight of expectations and hence, everything is enjoyable. I haven’t had a narrow focus and have been fortunate to do so many things, meet so many great people in this big world.

One last thing. Did you feel a bit sad that Edmeades came back in the end. Did you tell them to ask him to stay in bed longer!

Ha ha! No no, he had come all the way to the country to do this. I was just a substitute. He felt good enough to come back and do it in the end. All good. It was a strange, unusual situation to get into when I did; glad I could do the job professionally.