New Delhi. Before the Indian Premier League 2025, the big auction of players will be held on 24 and 25 November in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced on Tuesday. This is the second consecutive year that the auction is being held abroad. The last auction before IPL 2024 was held in Dubai.
Player registration officially closed on Monday and a total of 1,574 cricketers (1,165 Indians and 409 foreigners) have registered for the auction. The auction will clash with the third and fourth day’s play of the first Test between India and Australia starting on November 22 in Perth. Each franchise will be able to field a team of maximum 25 players (including the respective retained players) and a total of 204 players can be purchased from the auction.
This list includes 320 capped (who have played international matches) players while 1,224 uncapped (who have not played international matches) players and 30 players from associate countries. Among the players playing international cricket, 48 are from India. Apart from this, 965 uncapped players of the country will also be part of the auction.
Some big Indian stars like Rishabh Pant, Lokesh Rahul, Shreyas Iyer and Arshdeep Singh will also be included in this year’s auction.
The 10 franchises will collectively have around Rs 641.5 crore to spend on 204 players during the auction. Of these 204 places, 70 are earmarked for foreign players. So far, 10 franchises have retained 46 players with a collective expenditure of Rs 558.5 crore.
Each franchise was allocated Rs 120 crore to build its team but after the end of the retention process on October 31, Punjab Kings has the highest amount of Rs 110.5 crore. Punjab team has retained only two uncapped players Shashank Singh and Prabhsimran Singh for a total of Rs 9.5 crore. Sanju Samson-led Rajasthan Royals have the least amount of Rs 41 crore after retaining six players. Kolkata Knight Riders have also retained six players but they are left with an amount of Rs 51 crore.