File photo of the IPL trophy© Twitter
The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 mega auction is expected to be held at the end of this year. Mega auctions often throw interesting combinations with the tricky part being the retention of players. According to a report in The Indian Express, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) may allow the IPL IPL franchises to retain five players ahead of the IPl 2025 mega auction. The report further said that no Right To Match option shall be available.
If indeed five players are allowed to be retained there it will be great for Mumbai Indians who can continue with five super stars - Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya.
According to IANS, the mega auction for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 will be held in November end or early December, BCCI sources informed. The rules and regulations for the same will be released by Board for Cricket Council of India (BCCI) in a couple of days, they said. The Indian Premier League has held two large auctions in the past ten years, with four-year intervals in between. The first major auction was held in 2014, then in 2018--when the Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings made their comeback after a two-year suspensions.
About developments related to the mega auction, sources close to BCCI confirmed to IANS that auction is likely to be scheduled in November end or early December . "IPL 2025 auction will take place in November end or early December this year. Rules of it will be out in couple of days," BCCI sources told IANS.
The 2021 mega auction was forced to be postponed by one year due to the Covid-19 outbreak. In both cases, teams added an extra year to the contracts of their players.
Like the 2022 auction in February and the 2023 and 2024 auctions in December, the upcoming IPL mega sale is most likely going to be a two-day affair.
In the last mega auction held in 2022, the IPL teams were permitted to retain up to four players. With the end of the three-year cycle approaching, there are differing opinions among franchises about the optimal number of retained players. While some teams argue for a larger retention cap, possibly up to eight players, others are comfortable with the existing limit of four or five.
With IANS inputs