IPL 2020 Auction Overview– Scheduled Date, Format, Franchise Purse and Player Availability
Every time any IPL news is out, it invariably creates a lot of buzzes around. And on the 15th of November, despite a Test match going on in India, there was a lot of buzz around the 13th edition of the IPL which is slated to start in April next year. All eight teams released a list of their retained players and the ones that they have let go of.
As many as 127 cricketers were retained while 71 were released by the eight franchises. There were some big names that were released as well. But almost all of them will go back into the auction pool and teams will have a chance to buy them during the auction for the IPL 2020 season.
When and where is the IPL 2020 auction?
The auction is scheduled to take place in Kolkata on the 19th of December. The auctions are traditionally held in Bengaluru. But that has changed from the last season. Last year, Jaipur was chosen as the venue for the auctions and this year, it is Kolkata.
What is the format of next year's IPL auction?
This player auction is very different from the draft format that is largely followed for quite a few T20 leagues around the world. In that format, players are picked from a pool where the price cap is fixed. But in the auction, the base price of a player is fixed and teams bid for a particular player starting from his base price. Generally, the base prices in the IPL are INR 2 crore, 1.5 crores, 1 crore, 75 lakh, 50 lakh, 25 lakh and 20 lakh. Often big overseas stars put themselves in the bracket where the base price is upwards of INR 1 crore while the Indian domestic cricketers tend to keep it as low as possible. Earlier, the domestic Indian players were picked through a draft system but now, even they are a part of the auction.
Players will be auctioned from different pools. It’s usually a star group that comes up first before a round of batsmen, bowlers, all-rounders and wicket-keepers follow one after the other. Different players are segregated in different pools and these pools are brought up one by one.
How many slots can a team fill during the IPL auction?
Hundreds of cricketers will go under the hammer but only 73 slots are available to be filled across the eight teams. Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) has the most slots available. They can pick as many as 12 players from the auctions. Meanwhile, Rajasthan Royals (RR), Delhi Capitals (DC) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) can pick 11 players each. The likes of Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Mumbai Indians (MI) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) have retained most of their previous players and have just five, seven and seven slots to fill respectively.
Purse available to the teams during the IPL 2020 auction
The teams together can spend as much as INR 207.65 crore on the players. Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) who has nine slots available have the biggest purse of INR 42.70 crore. KKR is the other team that has a big purse (INR 35.65 crore). The likes of RCB, DC and RR who have quite a few players to fill have about INR 27-28 crore in the bank. The other three have less than INR 20 crore but they don’t have big slots to fill either.
Some of the big names are expected to be back in this auction. The Australian stars like Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Aaron Finch will be big attractive buys. England’s white-ball stars like Eoin Morgan, Jason Roy, Tom Banton and others will also be under the spotlight.
With less than a month to go for the auctions, it’s not only the fans or the franchises, even the players are keenly engrossed and keeping a close eye on the proceedings.
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