The Indian Premier League (IPL) has requested that all the franchises submit their list of retained players by November 15 in order to start the process for the upcoming mini-auction. The IPL 2023 auction is expected to take place in the third week of December, however, a date hasn’t yet been decided. There is no such cap for the number of players that can be retained as was the case in the major auction last year as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
A maximum of 4 players were allowed for the teams to be retained in the major auction last year. Ear side will also have an additional INR 5 crore (USD 607,000) to spend on top of the money from the previous auction, bringing the total auction pot money to INR 95 crore ( USD 11.5 million).
After last year’s auction, Punjab Kings had the largest purse left – INR 3.45 crore (approx. US $425,000), while Lucknow Super Giants had exhausted their entire purse. Chennai Super Kings had INR 2.95 crore (approx. US $358,000) remaining, followed by Royal Challengers Bangalore (INR 1.55 crore, or approx. US $188,000), Rajasthan Royals (INR 0.95 crore or approx. US $115,000) and Kolkata Knight Riders (INR 0.45 crore, or approx. US $55,000). Defending champions Gujarat Titans were left with INR 0.15 crore (approx. US $18,000) while three teams – Mumbai Indians, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Delhi Capitals – had INR 0.10 crore (approx. US $12,000).
It has to be noted that though franchises have smaller purses in the mini-auction, but it has produced some of the most expensive buys in the past. At the 2021 auction, South Africa fast bowler Chris Morris became the most expensive player after Royals bought him for INR 16.25 crore (then approx. US $2.2 million), which was INR 25 lakhs more than Delhi’s winning bid for India allrounder Yuvraj Singh in 2015.
Also, six franchises brought in injury replacements during the 2022 edition of the Indian Premier League. These franchises will have to decide whether to retain the replacement player or the original player or both provided the player limit allows. Following is the list of players originally bought and their replacements:
Adam Milne, replaced by Matheesha Pathirana (Super Kings)
Tymal Mills, replaced by Tristan Stubbs (Mumbai)
Nathan Coulter-Nile, replaced by Corbin Bosch (Royals)
Mark Wood, replaced by Andrew Tye (Super Giants)
Alex Hales, replaced by Aaron Finch (Knight Riders)
Jason Roy, replaced by Rahmanullah Gurbaz (Titans)
