Ashwin enters ILT20 auction with highest base price!

Ravichandran Ashwin entered his first ILT20 auction with a whopping base price of US$ 120,000 -- the highest for any player, at the inaugural ILT20 auction.

The auction is scheduled for October 1 in Dubai. 

Ashwin is among the 24 Indians on the auction longlist, which has almost 800 players as of now. A final list will be prepared this week once the ILT20 receives the wishlist from each franchise, said a report in ESPNCricinfo.

The auction will bring together all six franchises as they look to finalise their squads for season 4, which begins on December 2 and culminates with the final on January 4, 2026.

Ashwin has listed full availability for the tournament, after which he is likely to head to the BBL, where four teams are understood to have expressed interest in hiring him for the latter half of the season.

Each franchise will enter the auction with a minimum purse of $800,000, supplemented by any unutilised funds from the $1.2 million allocated for direct signings and retentions that

were made in July. By the conclusion of the auction, teams are required to have spent at least $1.5 million and no more than $2 million.

Beyond the auction, franchises may also add up to two wildcard players for a combined spend of $250,000. Franchises must build squads of between 19 and 21 players (excluding wildcards), comprising a minimum of 11 from ICC Full Member nations, alongside four UAE players, one from Kuwait, one from Saudi Arabia, and two from other ICC Associate Nations.

Player base prices have been set at $10,000, $40,000, and $80,000, with the final player list drawn from registrations submitted between July and September. The auction itself will see players grouped into sets according to their status and specialisation, with Full Member players to be drawn first.

Within each set, names will be picked at random, with the auctioneer opening the bidding at the player's base price. Unsigned players may re-enter the pool during Accelerated Rounds, should franchises wish to revisit them.

Furthermore, franchises will also have the option of exercising one Right-to-Match (RTM) card for a UAE player who was either part of their squad in season 3 or a member of their squad during the recently concluded Development Tournament. This provision can only be used once and applies exclusively to UAE players.