While seven of Australia’s Cricket World Cup winners like Travis Head, Steve Smith, Pat Cummins, Josh Inglis, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Sean Abbott will be available for a starting price of Rs 2 crore at the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 player auctions, New Zealand’s Rachin Ravindra has chosen to enter the auction at a price tag of Rs 50 lakh.
Ravindra was one of the breakout stars from the recently-concluded Cricket World Cup in India, scoring 578 runs from 10 innings at an average of 64.22. This included the 75 runs he scored against the Indian pace attack at Dharamsala.
While there are a bunch of New Zealand, South Africa and England players who have entered the auctions with a price tag of Rs 2 crore, the highest price tag list also includes Afghanistan’s Mujeeb ur Rahman and Bangladesh’s Mustafizur Rahman, while Mohammad Nabi has priced himself for Rs 1.5 crore.
Notably, Head and Mitchell had gone unsold in last year’s auctions.
23 players will be entering the IPL 2024 auction, which will be held at Dubai’s Coca-Cola Arena on December 19, with a base price of Rs 2 crore. This will include India’s Shardul Thakur, Harshal Patel and Umesh Yadav.
There will be 333 cricketers, whose names will go under the gavel on that day. 13 players are in the auction list with a base price of INR 1.5 crore. Out of 333 players, 214 are Indians and 119 are overseas players of which two players are from associate nations. The total capped players are 116, uncapped players are 215 and 2 from associate nations. A maximum of 77 slots are now available with up to 30 being slotted for overseas players.
Among teams, Kolkata Knight Riders are the side with most slots to fill — 12 — while Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Lucknow Super Giants, and Sunrisers Hyderabad are the teams will the least spots available (six).
The Gujarat Titans have the highest salary cap available going into the auction, Rs 38.15 crore, with SRH (Rs 34 crore), Kolkata Knight Riders (Rs 32.7 crore) and CSK (Rs 31.4) next in the list of teams with the most money to spend in the auctions.
The IPL 2024 Auction will start at 1 PM local time in Dubai (2:30 PM IST).
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First published on: 11-12-2023 at 21:20 IST
Hasibur Rahaman is a passionate sports journalist. He covers everything from cricket to field hockey, delivering up-to-the-minute updates and in-depth analysis of sporting events, both within India and on the international stage.
