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, maybe, a bit frivolously, I assumed: ‘That’s what I wish to be,’” she recollects with a chuckle.
Three a long time on, Sagar finds herself on the helm of creating historical past.
After a profitable 23-year profession in artwork auctioneering, she is about to develop into the primary feminine auctioneer on the richest franchise cricket league on this planet 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 underneath the hammer through the daylong occasion, which shall be a breakaway from a development that has seen solely males – Welshman Richard Madley, Briton Hugh Edmeades and India’s Charu Sharma – spearhead the occasion.
“It’s extraordinarily thrilling to be requested to conduct an IPL public sale,” 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 character and expertise’
Clad in a yellow drop-waist costume 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 possibly can be essentially the most partaking male auctioneer, essentially the most boring feminine auctioneer or vice versa – it’s about character and expertise.”
The 48-year-old has been accountable for wielding the gavel at each the participant auctions for the Ladies’s Premier League (WPL), India’s IPL-style five-team franchise event for girls.
“Sport is gendered, so to be a part of one thing the place ladies cricketers have a platform on the highest stage and the prospect to be financially impartial doing what they love, was actually particular.”
Being one of many few feminine auctioneers in India, Sagar acknowledged that the inaugural WPL public sale in February could have been an unwitting stepping stone to convey 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 brand new world” for her, given her longstanding affiliation with artwork.
“It did take slightly bit of coaching, largely to alter my method,” she mentioned.
So what does it take to make auctioneer?
“Relying on what you’re promoting, it’s a must to study the mechanics of the auctioneering course of and mix it with math, theatre and drama – all wrapped up in a smile!”
The PKL expertise, she mentioned, 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 distinct ball recreation.
The dimensions of operations, together with the necessities of catching the producer’s cue within the ear throughout dwell broadcast, added a distinct 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 important focus and suppleness.
“It’s important to be alert and adaptable,” she mentioned. “At instances, regardless of your finest efforts, there could be errors. Chances are you’ll get a syllable fallacious when calling out a whole lot of names. It’s finest to acknowledge the error, apologise, repair it, and transfer on.
“Whatever the state of affairs, you possibly can’t panic. You can not let your nervousness take over your job. Having composure as a part of your skillset is a should.”
Sagar swears by train and yoga to refuel quietude and power of physique and thoughts.
“There’s nothing a downward canine or a headstand doesn’t repair,” she quipped. On public sale eve, she retires early to keep away from psychological exhaustion through 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 doable as an auctioneer, irrespective of the stature of the gamers on provide.
“It’s necessary to current a newcomer with the identical quantity of power as you’d a star participant,” she mentioned.
Among the many different non-negotiables, Sagar locations the utmost premium on figuring out the topic – the order of the units of gamers, much like items of artwork.
“You’ve acquired to tempo out every title effectively and provides it sufficient time,” she mentioned. “Particularly, when there’s a flurry of bids for them.
“And when the frenzy slows down, give it just a few seconds and ask the room, ‘Everyone positive? Final probability when you’d wish to bid?’ Whether or not in artwork or cricket, speedy modifications corresponding to a last-minute elevate of the paddle or a brand new entrant coming in are a given. It’s your job to issue all of them in.”
Has her preparation for the IPL public sale been any totally different from the WPL’s?
“No, as a result of the fundamental codecs are the identical,” Sagar defined. “The hot button is to be sure you are aware of the names. You don’t wish to destroy somebody’s title who’s arising on a platform as prestigious as this – it’s their second of glory, in spite of everything.”
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.
