The Indian Premier League (IPL) is set for a major overhaul in a few days’ time with the mega auction set to take place in the second week of February.
The cash-rich league has revolutionsed the sport since its inception in 2008 by popularising franchise-based T20 leagues across the globe and adding to the shortest format’s appeal, in addition to making BCCI the most powerful cricketing board in the world. In its 13 years of its existence, the IPL has also played a major role in discovering and shaping young talents who would go on to become international stars, such as Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya.
The tournament is usually preceded by a player auction that takes place anytime between December to February, where the intensity of the bidding wars between the member franchises can sometimes match that of the on-field action. Both uncapped domestic talents and international superstars register themselves for a chance to get picked up by one of the eight (now ten) franchises and bag an IPL contract — considered one of the more valuable cricketing contracts in the present era.
With the league having existed for more than a decade now, some players have become synonymous with their franchises. Whether it’s Mumbai Indians’ Rohit Sharma and the Pandya brothers, Chennai Super Kings’ MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja and Suresh Raina, or Sunrisers Hyderabad’s David Warner, Kane Williamson and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. While the player auction serves as an opportunity for the franchises to bid for players to either add to their bench strength or plug the gaps, the team’s planning mainly revolves around its core group of players.
Things will be very different at the mega auction however, with the league going for a near-overhaul, where the franchises will be looking not to plug gaps or add to their reserves, but to somewhat build a whole new side.
What is the purpose of the mega auction?
Think of the mega player auction as the IPL hitting the reset button, a chance for the league to shake things up and starting afresh. While franchises shell out millions of dollars for the Glenn Maxwells, Chris Morris’, Ben Stokes’, etc every year, there are some players whose names almost never come up in the bidding process, individuals who have over the years become integral to the franchise’s planning and performances.
With franchises allowed to retain up to four players (maximum of three Indians and two overseas players), the player pool becomes even wider for the team owners to choose from. The difference this year is that in a normal IPL season, Delhi Capitals would have thought twice before releasing tried-and-tested performers such as Kagiso Rabada and Shreyas Iyer. The retention rules this time around however, forced the team owners to let go of the two, who will now go under the hammer and might just end up playing against the side they were a core part of not too long ago.
The IPL has had a mega auction thrice in the past — in 2011, 2014 and 2018 respectively. In the last mega auction in 2018, franchises were allowed to retain a maximum of three players.
Note: For the full list of players retained by the eight franchises and signed by the two new franchises, click here
Here are some of the other things you need to know about the IPL mega auction:
When will the IPL 2022 mega player auction take place?
The IPL mega auction will take place on 12 and 13 February.
Where will the mega auction take place?
The mega auction will take place in in Bengaluru.
Where can I watch the live coverage of the IPL mega auction?
You can watch the live coverage of the IPL mega auction on the various channels in the Star Sports network in English, Hindi as well as a host of regional languages. The event will also be streamed live on Disney+ Hotstar. You can also follow the live coverage of the event on Firstpost.
Which are the two new franchises in this year’s mega auction?
Lucknow and Ahmedabad are the two new franchises in this year’s mega auction. While Lucknow revealed the team name ahead of the auction, calling themselves Lucknow SuperGiants, Ahmedabad are yet to unveil any such details.
Which players have been retained by the franchises ahead of the mega auctions? And which players have the two new franchises bought?
RCB: Virat Kohli (Rs 15 crores) Glenn Maxwell (Rs 11 crores) and Mohammad Siraj (Rs 7 crores)
MI: Rohit Sharma (16 crores), Jasprit Bumrah (12 crores), Suryakumar Yadav (8 crores), Kieron Pollard (6 crores)
PBKS: Mayank Agarwal (Rs 14 crore), Arshdeep Singh (uncapped) (Rs 4 crore)
SRH: Kane Williamson (Rs 14 crore), Umran Malik (uncapped, Rs 4 crore), Abdul Samad (Uncapped, Rs 4 crores)
CSK: Ravindra Jadeja (Rs 16 crore), MS Dhoni (Rs 12 crore), Moeen Ali (Rs 8 crore), Ruturaj Gaikwad (Rs 6 crores)
DC: Rishabh Pant (Rs 16 crore), Axar Patel (Rs 9 crore), Prithvi Shaw(Rs 7.5 crore) and Anrich Nortje (Rs 6.5 crore)
RR: Sanju Samson (Rs 14 crore), Jos Buttler (Rs 10 crore) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (Uncapped, Rs 4 crore).
KKR: Sunil Narine (Rs 12 crore), Andre Russell (Rs 8 crore), Varun Chakravarthy (Rs 8 crore) and Venkatesh Iyer (Rs 6 crore).
The two new teams Ahmedabad were allowed to buy three players each ahead of the mega auction.
Ahmedabad bought Hardik Pandya (15 crore) (Appointed captain), Rashid Khan (15 crore) and Shubman Gill (8 crore)
Lucknow bought KL Rahul (17 crore) (Appointed captain), Marcus Stoinis (9.2 crore) and Ravi Bishnoi (4 crore)
What is the total purse available to the 10 teams and how much of it is remaining?
The teams were given a total purse of Rs 90 crore for the player auction, which includes the funds that would be used for retaining up to four players in the build-up to the mega auction.
Here’s how much the franchises have left after retaining/signing players along with number of open player slots and number of overseas player slots in brackets:
Mumbai Indians: Rs 48 crore (21/7)
Chennai Super Kings: Rs 48 crore (21/7)
Kolkata Knight Riders: Rs 56 crore (21/6)
Delhi Capitals: Rs 51 crore (21/7)
Rajasthan Royals: Rs 62 crore (22/7)
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Rs 57 crore (22/7)
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Rs 68 crore (22/7)
Punjab Kings: Rs 74 crore (23/8)
Luckow SuperGiants: Rs 59.8 crore (22/7)
Team Ahmedabad: Rs 52 crore (22/7)
How many players will go under the hammer in the IPL mega auction?
A total of 590 players are set to go under the hammer in the mega auction, of which 228 are capped players, 355 are uncapped while seven belong to associate nations. A total of 1,214 players had originally signed up for the auction, of which 896 were Indians, before the list was trimmed down to 590.
What are the various base prices for the players going under the hammer in the mega auction?
There are eight base prices that the players signing up for the auction can choose from — Rs 2 crore, Rs 1.5 crore, Rs 1 crore, Rs 75 lakh, Rs 50 lakh, Rs 40 lakh, Rs 30 lakh and Rs 20 lakh.
As many as 48 players have decided to place themselves in the highest base price of Rs 2 crore, including India’s Shreyas Iyer, Shikhar Dhawan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, as well as overseas stars such as Kagiso Rabada, Imran Tahir, Ben Stokes, David Warner, Shakib Al Hasan, etc. 20 players are in the 1.5 crore bracket while 33 are in 1 crore bracket.
What is the total number of players a team can have in its squad?
A team can have a maximum of 25 and a minimum of 18 players in its squad after the auction.
Do the franchises have any Right to Match (RTM) cards in this auction?
No, the BCCI has removed RTM from this year’s player auction. A Right to Match card allows a franchise to buy back a player they released at the highest bidding price that the player received in the auction.
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