NEW DELHI: Ahead of the highly-anticipated Indian Premier league mega auction, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has said that there will be two sets of marquee players at the two-day event, Cricbuzz reported.
The auction is scheduled for November 24 and 25 at the Benchmark Arena in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Franchises are preparing for the auction and have learned from the BCCI that two marquee lists will be used, each featuring 8-9 players.
While using two Elite lists isn’t unprecedented in mega-auctions, the previous major auction in 2022 only employed one.
Notably, the 2018 and 2014 auctions did utilize two sets.
Players expected to be included in the Elite grade are Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Mohammed Siraj, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, R Ashwin, Mitchell Starc, and Jos Buttler, among others.
Star England all-rounder Ben Stokes, who would have been in the marquee list, had earlier opted out of this year’s auction.
With each marquee player setting a base price of INR 2 crore, the first two sets of players could exhaust 30 to 50 percent of the total auction purse.
Franchises are expected to secure at least two prominent players each, potentially costing between INR 20-25 crore on average.
This could amount to INR 200-250 crore from the total purse of Rs 641.5 crore.
It’s important to note that franchises have already allocated Rs 558.5 crore of their permitted INR 1200 crore during recent retentions.
The auction’s trajectory over the two days will likely hinge on the bids placed for players in the first two sets, many of whom are expected to be sold.
Punjab Kings, holding the largest available purse at INR 110.5 crore, are well-positioned to acquire top players.
The BCCI will soon announce the precise bidding order and the marquee list.
They recently distributed a register of 1,574 names, including 1,165 Indian players and 409 overseas players.
This roster comprises 320 capped, 1224 uncapped, and 30 Associate players.
Additionally, franchises have retained a total of 46 players.
