IPL Intervenes to Regulate Mini Auction Pricing of Foreign Players

The IPL governing council has announced new regulations and penalties for players who withdraw from matches at the last minute. In addition, a maximum amount of earnings for players in mini auctions has been set to prevent overseas players from consistently receiving exorbitant payments. These decisions were made during a meeting on Saturday, following discussions led by IPL chairman Arun Dhumal, who had previously mentioned these measures in an interview with HT in March.

“Any player who registers in the player auction and after getting picked at the auction, makes himself unavailable before the start of the season, will get banned from participating in the tournament and player auction for 2 seasons,” BCCI secretary Jay Shah said in his statement after the meeting.

Overseas player withdrawals have been a recurring complaint from the franchises, who go to great lengths to secure their services only to be left high and dry, not always for justifiable reasons.

“Most foreign players withdraw if they go cheap in the auction,” said a franchise executive. “The way the auction dynamics work, sometimes your name may be called up late and teams may have filled up their slots or may not have much of their purse left. As a player, you are signing up for this possibility. To withdraw after the auction is being plain unprofessional.”

Sri Lankan Hasaranga’s withdrawal before IPL 2024 was a curious one. The leg-spinner was lapped up by Sunrisers Hyderabad at his base price of Rs1.5 crore, a huge drop in value from his previous Rs10.75 crore contract with Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Although Hasaranga’s chronic heel pain was endorsed by Sri Lanka Cricket, most in the IPL ecosystem remained unconvinced. In such contentious cases in the future, the final ruling may be down to trust between IPL, the player and the member cricket board.

Ben Stokes’ withdrawal in late 2023, to manage his workload, had disrupted Chennai Super Kings’ 2024 plans, but at least the England Test captain made his unavailability known before last year’s mini auction, allowing the team to boost the salary purse.

“Other than injuries, exceptions should never be made,” a coaching staff member from a franchise said. Many franchises feel it’s not just pre-season withdrawals, they are equally affected by players who can’t commit to the entire season based on diktats from their national cricket boards. The English Cricket Board (ECB) withdrew many of their players from IPL 2024 to keep them fresh for the T20 World Cup.

“If you put any work in a competition, especially IPL, you want to play every game,” England and Kolkata Knight Riders batter Phil Salt said recently. “That’s what is in you as a professional sportsman. You want to play all the big games and be in high pressure moments. I was disappointed to have come so far and having to leave India with a job (playoffs) still to do.”

ECB managing director Rob Key admitted in an interview to that his calls did not make him popular in India, but suggested he had to do that. Cricket’s constantly congested calendar will see these club-country clashes crop up in future, but IPL from its position of strength is searching for safeguards.

Player withdrawals for personal reasons citing mental fatigue is another grey area that requires delicate handling.

Capping foreign player earnings

Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins may be the last overseas players to pocket a cash bonanza – Rs24.75 crore and ₹20.5 crore respectively - from the mini auction. The IPL GC has moved to make some regulatory tweaks in a bid to prevent overseas players from strategically signing up for the mini auction and not the mega auction. While most of the Indian capped players are retained by franchises, overseas players entering the mini-auction get to take advantage of the demand-supply imbalance.

As per the new regulations, an overseas player will have to mandatorily register for the mega auction, failing which he will be kept out of the subsequent mini auction, with exceptions for any injury/medical condition.

At the same time, there will be a cap on the upper limit in player earnings from the mini auction. The maximum fee will be either the highest retention price (Rs18 crore for the 2025 auction) or the highest auction price, whichever is lower. That would effectively mean that no overseas player will earn more than Rs18 crore in the 2026 mini-auction.

If bidding for an overseas player continues for a much bigger sum, that final amount will be charged to the winning team’s auction purse, the differential going to BCCI for being utilised towards players’ welfare.