IPL 2025 Mega Auction: The mega auction for the Indian Premier League 2025 will be held on November 24 and 25 in Saudi Arabia's Jeddah.
For the second consecutive year, the mega auctions are being held overseas. Earlier in 2024, they were held in Dubai.
The IPL governing council informed the media that 10 franchises are offering 204 slots in the upcoming IPL 2025 mega auction and 1,574 players have registered for the event. Of these, 1,165 are Indian, while 409 are from overseas.
"The IPL player registration officially closed on November 4, 2024, with an impressive total of 1,574 players (1,165 Indian and 409 overseas) signing up to be part of the mega TATA IPL 2025 Player Auction, which will be held over two days on November 24 and 25 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia," IPL Media Advisory said in a press release.
It also mentioned that 320 players are capped, 1,224 are uncapped and 30 players from associate nations have registered themselves for the mega auctions.
It will clash with the third and fourth days of the first Test between India and Australia in Perth.
Forty-eight capped Indian players, 272 capped international players, 965 uncapped Indian cricketers, and 104 international uncapped cricketers will participate in the TATA IPL 2025 mega auction.
Also, there are 152 uncapped Indians who were a part of previous IPL seasons, while 3 uncapped Internationals who were a part of previous IPL seasons.
Country-wise, 409 overseas players are participating in the auction, the maximum from South Africa (91), followed by Australia (76), England (52), New Zealand (39), and the West Indies (33). Sri Lanka and Afghanistan each have 29 players, while 13 are from Bangladesh.
Others include Netherlands (12), USA (10), Ireland (9), Zimbabwe (8), Canada (4), Scotland (2), Italy (1) and UAE (1).
The BCCI has clearly notified that each franchise will be able to fill a maximum squad of 25 players and 204 slots will be up for grabs at the TATA IPL 2025 Player Auction.
A total of 46 players were retained across the 10 franchises. Sunrisers Hyderabad retained wicketkeeper-batter Heinrich Klaasen for ₹23 crore, the most expensive retention. Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Lucknow Super Giants retained Virat Kohli and Nicholas Pooran for ₹21 crore each. On the contrary, Mumbai Indians retained all their big Indian players - Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rohit Sharma, and Tilak Varma - for a total of ₹75 crore.
Punjab Kings retained Shashank Singh and Prabhsimran Singh for a total of ₹9.5 crore.
The IPL has allowed teams to retain up to six players this time, out of which a maximum of five can be capped and a maximum of two can be uncapped. All the six players can either be retained outright ahead of the auction or they can be bought back using Right-to-Match (RTM) options at the auction, or a combination of both, reported ESPNCricinfo.
As per IPL rules, a franchise that was part of IPL 2024 may step in at the end of the bidding process and buy back its player using the RTM option by matching the highest bid.
Also, the franchise that made the winning bid will be given another opportunity to raise the bid to whatever amount they wish. In that case, the player's previous team can match the increased bid in case they want to buy back their player.
Punjab Kings have the most RTM options (four) at the auction as they retained just two players.
For RCB, they have three RTM options, while Delhi Capital have two after they retained four players. However five franchises – MI, Chennai Super Kings, Gujarat Titans, SRH and LSG - retained five players each and have just one RTM option at the auction. Meanwhile, RR and KKR have no RTM options.
The BCCI has put no bar on franchises on the number of players they can buy back if they place the highest bids for them during regular bidding at the auction.
With 10 IPL teams set to spend ₹641.5 crore, the BCCI had put a cap of ₹120 crore for each. Punjab Kings have the biggest purse remaining – ₹110.5 crore to spend at the mega auction, while Rajasthan Royals have the smallest purse of ₹41 crore. KKR will have ₹51 crore to spend at the auction.
GT has ₹69 crore, Mumbai Indians have ₹45 crore, CSK has ₹55 crore, Delhi Capitals have ₹73 crore, RCB has ₹83 crore, LSG has ₹69 crore, and SRH has ₹45 crore left after retentions.
The IPL 2025 Mega Auction will be live-streamed on the Jio Cinema app and website, while Star Sports will live-telecast it.
