The IPL Mega Auction will be held on November 24 and 25 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, the third and fourth day of the first Test between India and Australia will be played in Perth. Last year a mini auction was held in Dubai, now the mega auction is going to be held in Saudi Arabia.
Big bids are expected for Rishabh Pant, released from Delhi Capitals, former Lucknow Supergiants captain KL Rahul and champions Kolkata Knight Riders captain Shreyas Iyer.
204 players vacant in 10 teams The IPL committee had set October 31, 2024 as the date to retain the players ahead of the mega auction. 10 teams retained 46 players. After which 204 players were left vacant in the teams. More than 1000 players will participate in the auction for these places.
The IPL auction is going to be held abroad for the second year in a row.
Highest purse balance in Punjab This time the IPL committee has given a purse of 120 crore rupees to the teams to buy the players. Punjab Kings have the highest savings of Rs 110.50 crore due to retaining only 2 players. All other teams' purses are less than Rs 85 crore.
Rajasthan Royals spent Rs 79 crores to retain 6 players, so they have at least Rs. 41 crore is outstanding. Hyderabad and Mumbai have retained 5 international players each, leaving them with Rs 45 crore.
Mega auction is held once in 4 years The mega auction of IPL happens once in 4 years. Meanwhile, a mini auction is held every year. Only one mini-auction was held in Dubai last year, in which Australia's Mitchell Starc was bought for Rs 24.75 crore and Pat Cummins for Rs 20.50 crore. The last mega auction took place before the 2022 IPL, when teams from Lucknow and Gujarat were added to the league.
Klaasen was retained for Rs 23 crore Before the retention deadline, Sunrisers Hyderabad retained wicketkeeper-batsman Henrik Klaasen for 23 crores. He is the most expensive player in retention. After that LSG retained Nicholas Pooran and RCB retained Virat Kohli for Rs 21 crore each.
Henrik Klaasen is the most expensive player in retention.
5 teams need a captain The most surprising retention decision was taken by champions Kolkata and Delhi. Both released their young captains. Kolkata doesn't even have an RTM card left, so if the team wants to bring back Shreyas Iyer, they will have to win a bidding war against Iyer.
Delhi definitely have 2 RTM cards left, plus the team can keep Rishabh Pant with them even after entering the auction. Apart from this, Bengaluru released Faf du Plessis, Lucknow released KL Rahul and Punjab released Sam Curran. Virat Kohli can captain Bengaluru, while the remaining 4 teams will have to buy a captain.
4 teams have no wicketkeeper Before the mega auction, only 6 teams retained the wicketkeeper batsman. Wicketkeepers like Pant, Rahul, Jos Buttler, Ishan Kishan, Phil Salt, Quinton de Kock, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Glenn Phillips, Jonny Bairstow and Jitesh Sharma will be bidding heavily in the auction.
Among them, teams from Bengaluru, Kolkata, Gujarat and Mumbai will bid heavily for the wicketkeeper. Because all four wicketkeepers have not been retained. Also, Chennai will want to buy Dhoni's backup. The remaining 5 teams will also need backup wicketkeepers.
Punjab also has 4 RTM cards Punjab Kings retained only 2 players, so the team will now be able to buy 4 players from the team in the auction through RTM i.e. Right to Match Card. Bengaluru will have 3 RTM cards 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.
What is a Right to Match card? All teams retaining less than 6 players will get a Right to Match i.e. RTM card in the auction. With the RTM card, teams will be able to add a previous player to the team.
Let's understand RTM with an example, suppose Glenn Maxwell, who was part of RCB last season, was auctioned by MI for Rs. 7 crores bid was bought. Now RCB can keep Maxwell with them using the RTM card if they want.
However, this time MI will also have the option of increasing the bid for Maxwell. After using the RTM, MI can also bid Rs 10 crore on Maxwell. Now if RCB wants to keep Maxwell with them then they have to pay Rs 10 crore. Along with this, one of their RTM cards will be used. If RCB refuses, Maxwell will pay Rs. 10 crore will go to MI.
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
