The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has notified IPL franchises that the upcoming player auction will feature two sets of marquee players. The auction is scheduled to take place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on November 24 and 25.
Sources from the franchises, who have been preparing for the event, revealed that the BCCI has informed them there will be two marquee player lists, with each set containing 8-9 players. While having two Elite lists is common in mega-auctions, the 2022 auction only had one.
However, the 2018 and 2014 auctions did feature two sets. Among the players expected to be included in the Elite list are Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Mohammed Siraj, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, R Ashwin, Mitchell Starc, and Jos Buttler, among others.
Ben Stokes, expected to be included, has chosen not to register for this year’s auction in Jeddah’s Benchmark Arena. With each marquee player setting a base price of INR 2 crore, it is expected that 30-50% of the auction purse will be spent after the first two sets.
Each franchise is expected to secure at least two high-profile players, potentially costing between INR 20-25 crore each, collectively drawing INR 200-250 crore from the total purse of INR 641.5 crore. So far, franchises have already committed INR 558.5 crore of the allowed INR 1,200 crore on recent retentions.
The auction over the two days will largely be driven by the bidding for players in the first two marquee sets, most of whom are expected to be sold. Punjab Kings, with the highest remaining budget of INR 110.5 crore, are likely to secure some of the top players.
The BCCI will release the final bidding order and marquee list soon. They’ve shared a pool of 1,574 players, including 1,165 Indians and 409 overseas, with 320 capped, 1,224 uncapped, and 30 Associate players. Franchises have retained 46 players so far.
The BCCI has asked franchises to submit additional player suggestions by November 12 for inclusion in the final auction list. If each franchise opts for the maximum squad size of 25 players, a total of 204 players will be part of the auction, with up to 70 of them potentially being overseas players.
The roster of players in the auction register:
- Capped Indian (48 players)
- Capped International (272 players)
- Associate (30 players)
- Uncapped Indians who were a part of previous IPL seasons (152 players)
- Uncapped International who were a part of previous IPL seasons (3 players)
- Uncapped Indians (965 players)
- Uncapped Internationals (104 players)
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