The 15th IPL auction, commencing on Saturday, will be the last of its kind in the cash-rich T20 extravaganza as the Board of Control for Cricket in India is planning to do away with the concept, as most franchises do not want their stable core to be tinkered with.
Ahead of Saturday’s event, here’s a lowdown of ready references for the auction.
City of Auction: Bengaluru
Venue of Auction: ITC Gardenia
Time of Auction: 12 noon
Dates of Auction: February 12 and 13
Teams (10): Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Kolkata Knight Riders, Delhi Capitals, Punjab Kings, Rajasthan Royals, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Gujarat Titans*, Lucknow Supergiant* (*indicates new teams)
Total Purse for Auction: INR 90 crore per franchise
Minimum Amount per Franchise must spend: Rs 67.5 crore/90 crore
Squad Strength: Minimum Players: 18; Maximum Players: 25
Slabs of Base Prices: INR 2 Cr, 1.5 Cr, 1 Cr, 75 lk, 50 lk, 40 lk, 30 lk, 20 lk
Distribution of Players: 229 capped (Int'l), 354 Uncapped (domestic), 7 from ICC Associate nations
Saturday’s Bidding Process: 161 players will come under the hammer on Day 1; Day 2 will have accelerated process.
Meaning of Accelerated Process: Here franchises put up a common wish-list of players they want auctioned.
Status of Right To Match Cards (RTM): NO RTM Cards available
Concept of Silent Tie-Breaker: When two teams are tied and exhausted all their purse trying to bid for a player, they can submit a final closed bid amount and the one who's bid more will get the player. The extra amount bid is to be deposited with the BCCI and will not be part of INR 90 crore purse. Process can be repeated till a clear winner emerges.
Oldest player at auction: Imran Tahir of South Africa, at 43 years
Youngest Player at Auction: Noor Ahmed of Afghanistan, at 17 years
Name of Auctioneer: Hugh Edmeades.
Purse Left: DC (47.5 cr), MI (48 crore), CSK (48 cr), KKR (48 cr), Gujarat (52cr), RCB (57 cr), Lucknow (59), RR (62cr), SRH (68 cr), PBKS (72 cr)
Major Players Retained: Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Rashid Khan, Kieron Pollard.
High End India Players to Watch Out for (Likely INR 10 cr to 20 Cr bracket)
Shreyas Iyer
Ishan Kishan
Shardul Thakur
Deepak Chahar
Harshal Patel
Avesh Khan
Yuzvendra Chahal
Washington Sundar
Shikhar Dhawan
Devdutt Padikkal
Deepak Hooda
Senior Players To attract Decent bids (likely INR 5)
Bhuvneshwar Kumar
Dinesh Karthik
Ambati Rayudu
Robin Uthappa
Ravichandran Ashwin
Umesh Yadav
Mohd Shami
Capped and Uncapped young Indian players (INR 5 cr plus)
Shahrukh Khan
Ravi Srinivas Sai Kishore
Nitish Rana
Rahul Tripathi
Rahul Chahar
Rinku Singh
Likely Big Foreign Buys (INR 10 cr to 15 cr bracket)
David Warner
Quinton de Kock
Kagiso Rabada
Jason Holder
Jason Roy
Jonny Bairstow
Under-19 pick performers
Rajvardhan Hangargekar
Raj Angad Bawa
Vicky Ostwal
Yash Dhull
Syed Mushtaq T20 and Vijay Hazare One Day Performers
Yash Thakur
Abhinav Manohar
Mujtaba Yousuf
Mayank Yadav
Ritwick Roy Chowdhury
Abhishek Sharma.