Kolkata: The excitement level is building up in the tech city of Bengaluru with representatives of all 10 teams and other stakeholders of IPL 2022 trickling in there for the mega auction scheduled on February 12-13 (Saturday-Sunday).
It will be a Who’s Who among the international stars - with in-form stalwarts like David Warner, Player of the Tournament in 2021 T20 World Cup, Pat Cummins, Kagiso Rabada, Trent Boult, Quinton de Kock, Jonny Bairstow, Jason Holder, Dwayne Bravo, Shakib Al Hasan, Wanindu Hasaranga or veteran Faf du Plessis in fray. Warner, who had been an inspirational captain for Sunrisers Hyderabad and had won them their only title in 2016, was rather unceremoniusly dropped by them last season - can see quite a bit of scramble for him as he has been a respected captaincy material.
The Indian cricketers who may be subjected to hectic bidding war include the likes of Shreyas Iyer, senior pros Shikhar Dhawan, R Ashwin, Mohammad Shami, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina, Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur and Deepak Chahar. The final run-in to the auction predicts that at least two franchises will be ready to break the bank for Iyer, who decided to leave Delhi Capitals after the resurgent franchise decided to persist with Rishabh Pant as captain after the former came back from a shoulder surgery. There will be a scramble for cricketers with captaincy potential and Iyer is one of them after his decent job with the Delhi outfit.
Where and when
The two-day auction will take place on Saturday-Sunday at the ITC Gardenia hotel in Bengaluru. Amongst 590 players who have registered for the auction, 228 are capped players, 355 are uncapped and seven belong to Associate Nations. A total of 370 Indian players and 220 overseas players will be up for grabs. The highest number of overseas players are from Australia (47), followed by West Indies (34), South Africa (24) and New Zealand (24).
A 10-team affair
The IPL 2022 will be a 10-team affair after more than a decade and the addition of two new teams - Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Supergiants mean there will be 74 matches instead of 60 of previous editions. The BCCI is yet to make a final announcement about the venues as they are keeping a close watch on the Covid-19 situation in India, but the IPL chairman Brijesh Patel confirmed to Gulf News sometime back that they plan to host it in Maharashtra between four venues in Mumbai (Wankhede Stadium, CCI, Reliance ground and the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai) and the stadium in Pune.
Patel, however, said that the UAE will be their ‘Plan B’ in case there is a sudden spike in the cases across India. The likely window for the tournament will be from end-March to early May.
Guidelines of the auction
* The IPL 2022 auction will take place in a bio-bubble.
* The officials representing the franchises will have to clear Covid-19 tests with negative RT-PCR report on February 9, 10 and 11. The testing will be conducted by BCCI-accredited medical agency.
* No Right to Match (RTM) option will be available for the team in this auction.
* A maximum of four players have been allowed to be retained by the original eight IPL teams while the two new teams have been allowed three draft picks ahead of the auction. It means all the teams will start with a clean slate at the auction.
* The IPL 2022 purse has been raised from Rs 80 crore to Rs 90 crore to accommodate more players, especially from the domestic circuit.
* Participants who have returned to India after overseas trips in the last 15 days will have to undergo seven-day mandatory quarantine and test negative on Day 8 and 9 (twice).
* BCCI will keep a close watch on those arriving at the team hotel on February 11. They will be monitored for Covid-19 symptoms.
* The testing will be conducted between 12 am to 7 am to ensure smooth conduct of the IPL 2022 auction on February 12 and 13. The members will stay in their rooms until declared negative for the virus.
* All the attendees will have to share full details including COVID vaccination results (if any) with the BCCI medical team.
* All the participants will have to wear masks in the auditorium at the auction table.
List of retained players for 10 IPL teams
Chennai Super Kings
Retained Players: Ravindra Jadeja (Rs 16 crore) $ US 2.1 million approx
MS Dhoni (12 crore) 1.6m
Moeen Ali (8 crore) 1.06m
Ruturaj Gaikwad (6 crore) 800,000
Mumbai Indians
Retained Players: Rohit Sharma (16 crore) 2.1 m
Jasprit Bumrah (12 crore) 1.6m
Suryakumar Yadav (8 crore) 1.06m
Kieron Pollard (6 crore) 800,000
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Retained Players: Virat Kohli (15 crore) 2.05m
Glenn Maxwell (11 crore) 1.47m
Mohammed Siraj (7 crore) 935,000
Sunrisers Hyderabad
Retained Players: Kane Williamson (14 crore) 1.87m
Abdul Samad (4 crore) 534,000
Umran Malik (4 crore) 534,000
Rajasthan Royals
Retained Players: Sanju Samson (14 crore) 1.87m
Jos Buttler (10 crore) 1.33m
Yashasvi Jaiswal (4 crore) 534,000
Kolkata Knight Riders
Retained Players: Andre Russell (12 crore) 1.6m
Varun Chakravarthy (8 crore) 1.06m
Venkatesh Iyer (8 crore) 1.06m
Sunil Narine (6 crore) 800,000
Delhi Capitals
Retained Players: Rishabh Pant (16 crore) 2.13m
Axar Patel (9 crore) 1.20m
Prithvi Shaw (7.5 crore) 1m
Anrich Nortje (6.5 crore) 868,000
Punjab Kings
Retained Players: Mayank Agarwal (12 crore) 1.6m
Arshdeep Singh (4 crore) 534,000
Gujarat Titans (Ahmedabad)
Retained Players: Hardik Pandya (15 crores) 2.05m
Rashid Khan (15 crores) 2.05m
Shubman Gill (8 crores) 1.06m
Lucknow Supergiants (Lucknow)
Retained Players: KL Rahul (17 crore) 2.27m
Marcus Stoinis (9.2 crore) 1.22m
Ravi Bishnoi (4 crore) 534,000
Total purse for each team: Rs 90 crores ($ 12.25 million)
Purse remaining with each IPL team
Team Purse left
Chennai Super Kings 48 crore ($ 6.41 m)
Mumbai Indians 48 crore (6.41m)
Royal Challengers Bangalore 57 crore (7.61m)
Sunrisers Hyderabad 68 crore (9.08m)
Kolkata Knight Riders 48 crore (6.41m)
Rajasthan Royals 62 crore (8.28m)
Delhi Capitals 47.5 crore (6.34m)
Punjab Kings 72 crore (9.62m)
Ahmedabad 52 crore (6.94m)
Lucknow 58 crore (7.75m)
Country-wise breakdown of 220 overseas players
Afghanistan 17
Australia 47
Bangladesh 5
England 24
Ireland 5
New Zealand 24
South Africa 33
Sri Lanka 23
West Indies 34
Zimbabwe 1
Namibia 3
Nepal 1
Scotland 2
USA 1
