Jeddah: The world's richest cricket tournament, the Indian Premier League (IPL) star’s auction is being staged for the first time in Saudi Arabia.
The auction will be held in Jeddah on 24th and 25th November 2024.
The BCCI said 1,574 players, including 409 foreign players, had registered for the mega auction to be held at the sprawling Abady Al Jouhar (Benchmark) Arena in Jeddah.
The stars will be staying at the Shangri La Hotel, a 10-minute drive from the auction venue.
Earlier it was reported that this time IPL star auction will be held in Riyadh but at the last minute the venue was changed to Jeddah. This is the second time in a row that a foreign country is hosting the IPL star auction. Last time the auction was held in Dubai. The city of London was considered for the auction this time, but it was avoided due to adverse weather conditions.
1,165 Indian players and 409 foreign players will participate in the much-awaited star auction.
South Africa has the highest number of registered foreign players with 91 players. 76 from Australia, 52 from England, 39 from New Zealand, 33 from West Indies, 29 from Sri Lanka, 29 from Afghanistan, 13 from Bangladesh, 12 from Netherlands, 10 from America, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, Zimbabwe, U.A.E and less than 10 players registered for auction from other countries.
Players from Pakistan, despite being a full member of the ICC, cannot participate in the auction.
The BCCI said that 320 players who are currently playing international matches, 1,224 players who have not played an international match for five years and 30 players from associate nations will be part of the auction. 48 Indian players who are currently playing in international matches, including Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer, will be auctioned this time.
A total of 204 people can be selected for 10 teams. A total of 46 players were retained in the squads prior to the auction. Each team is allowed to spend a maximum of Rs 120 crore in the auction. From this only the amount spent on retained players in each team can be spent in the auction.