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IPL Mega Auction, the event that will make cricketers around the world millionaires, will be held on 24th and 25th November in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Bidding worth Rs 641.50 crore will be made on 577 players. 10 teams have to buy a total of 204 players.
Know everything about mega auction in 10 questions…
Question-1: When is the mega auction, I heard it is in Jeddah, why is it there? Tell me what is the difference between mega auction and normal auction? And where can you see it? answer: I heard it absolutely right. IPL mega auction will be held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The auction will start on November 24 at 3 pm. Bidding will take place till 8 pm, the remaining players will start selling from 3 pm the next day.
BCCI has been trying to host the mega auction abroad for the last few years to make it a global event. The last auction was also in Dubai. Before that all the auctions were held in India only.
The mega auction takes place once in 3 years, the last auction took place before the 2022 IPL. Teams can retain very few players in the mega auction. This time there was a limit of retaining 6 players.
There are mini auctions between mega auctions, in which teams can retain more players. Only mini auctions were held for 2023 and 2024 IPL. You can watch the auction on TV on ‘Star Sports Channel’ and online on ‘Jio Cinema’. Also, you can follow its live coverage on Dainik Bhaskar app.
Question-2: Who are participating in the auction, how many players will be bid for? answer: All the 10 franchises of IPL will participate in the auction along with their management team. 1574 players had registered to participate in the mega auction. Out of which 577 players were shortlisted, teams showed interest in purchasing them. Of these, there are 367 Indian and 210 foreign players. Of these, 4 players are from associate countries. 331 players are uncapped, including 319 from India and 12 from abroad.
Question 3: How much money does each team have to bid, is the amount different for each team? answer: The IPL committee has given a purse limit of Rs 120 crore to the teams. That means teams can spend this much money to buy their 18 to 25 players. With this much money the team also had to retain its top players. After the end of retention, Punjab Kings have the maximum amount of Rs 110.50 crore left. The teams which retained more players also have less money left in their purse.
The maximum number of places for 23 players are vacant in Punjab itself. After them, the places of 22 players in Bengaluru and 21 players in Delhi will be filled. Rajasthan has the least amount of Rs 41 crore left, only 19 players have vacancies in the team.
Question 4: What is this Right to Match i.e. RTM card, what are its rules, who has how many cards? answer: All the teams which have retained less than 6 players will get Right to Match i.e. RTM card in the auction. With the RTM card, teams will be able to keep back the previous player included in the squad.
Let us understand RTM with an example, suppose Glenn Maxwell, who was a part of RCB last season, was bought by MI in the auction by bidding Rs 7 crore. Now if RCB wants, they can keep Maxwell with them by using the RTM card.
However, this time MI will also have the option to increase the bid for Maxwell. After using RTM, MI can also bid Rs 10 crore on Maxwell. Now if RCB wants to keep Maxwell with them, they will have to pay Rs 10 crore. With this one of their RTM cards will be used. If RCB refuses, Maxwell will go to MI for Rs 10 crore.
Punjab Kings retained only 2 players, hence the team can now buy 4 players of the squad in the auction through RTM card. Bengaluru will have 3 and Delhi will have 2 RTM cards in the auction. Hyderabad and Rajasthan do not have a single RTM card, while the remaining 5 teams have 1 RTM card each.
Question 5: Will bidding be done on international and domestic players together? What does 79 sets mean in an auction? answer: The names of the players who have played international cricket will come first. There will be 45 capped players in 7 sets, followed by uncapped players. The 577 players are divided into 79 different sets. There are 5 to 8 players in a set. There are 45 international players in the first 7 sets. Players will be selected from the sequence of marquee player, batsman, bowler, wicketkeeper, fast bowler and spinner.
There will be a total of 38 uncapped players from set number 8 to 12. Their sequence will also be of batsman, bowler, wicketkeeper, pacer and spinner. From the 13th set, the names of further players will appear in the same sequence and the sets will repeat until the players of that category are eliminated. In the first set, bidding will be done on marquee i.e. top players and in the last set, uncapped all-rounders.
Question 6: Which players will be bid on first in the auction? When will the auction speed increase? answer: The names of Jos Buttler, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Kagiso Rabada, Arshdeep Singh and Mitchell Starc are in Set-1. The name of one of these players will come first.
There are 116 top players in 17 sets. This means that teams will get more time to think about purchasing players. The speed of the auction will be increased as soon as the name of player number 117 comes. That means teams will have to bid quickly for the 117th player. The auctioneer will not spend much time on players numbered 117 to 577.
Question 7: What is the base price of the players, how many players are there in which base price? answer: Base price is a fixed price, the player’s bidding in the auction starts from his base price. Rs 30 lakh is the smallest base price, while Rs 2 crore is the highest base price. There are names of 82 players in the base price of Rs 2 crore. There are 27 players in 1.50 crore, 18 players in 1.25 crore and 23 players in the base price of 1 crore. Apart from these, there are 427 players in the base price of 75 lakh, 50 lakh, 40 lakh and 30 lakh.
Question 8: Who will conduct the auction, who will wield the auction hammer? answer: BCCI and IPL committee will jointly conduct this auction. The host of the auction is Mallika Sagar, who will swing the hammer. He also hosted the last auction. Before him Hughes used to conduct Adams auctions.
When teams bid on a player, the auctioneer announces the player’s price as it increases. Finally, when the highest bid is received, the auctioneer slams the hammer on the desk and calls it sold and sells that player to the team. In this way the auction process is completed.
Mallika Sagar will conduct the auction.
Question 9: Is there any limit on buying domestic and foreign players? Which foreigner can buy the most? answer: Yes, absolutely it is. A team can buy a maximum of 8 foreign players only, because only a maximum of 4 foreigners can play in the playing-11 of the match. There are 18 to 25 players in the squad, to fill which the teams have to buy 8 foreigners along with the remaining domestic players.
Mumbai, Punjab and Bengaluru did not retain a single foreign player, so the teams can buy 8 foreigners each. Hyderabad retained maximum 3 foreign players, hence the team can buy only 5 foreign players. A total of 70 foreign players will be bought in the auction.
Question 10: What will happen after the auction? When and where will the next season of IPL take place? answer: The auction will end once 204 players are sold, all the franchises will prepare their respective teams with new players. Preparations will be started with the players who will not be on national duty from January next year.
A total of 74 matches will be played between 10 teams in the 2025 IPL. The 18th edition of the tournament will start from March 14 and continue till May 25. The 2024 IPL was played from March 22 to May 26. Under the captaincy of Shreyas Iyer, Kolkata Knight Riders won the title by defeating Sunrisers Hyderabad in the final.
