IPL Governing Council limits overseas players’ earning capacity at mini-auction; increases base price of capped, uncapped players

In a bid to ensure India cricketers end up raking in the largest moolah in the Indian Premier League (IPL) player auction, the IPL Governing Council has capped an overseas player’s earning at the mini-auction to Rs. 18 crore, the highest permissible retention fees at an auction.

The decision was made while finalising the IPL player auction rules here on Saturday night. Later on, a document with salient features about player regulations for the IPL 2025 player auction was shared with the franchises and Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) affiliates.

“Any overseas player’s auction fee at small auction will be lower than the highest retention price of Rs. 18 cr. or the highest auction price at the Big Auction,” states the document, accessed by Sportstar.

“In case the highest auction price at a big auction is Rs. 20 cr., then Rs. 18 cr. will be the cap. If the highest auction price at a big auction is Rs. 16 cr. then the cap will be Rs. 16 cr.”

It effectively means that no overseas player can be sold for a fee larger than some of the retained superstars of Indian cricket.

A trend of smaller auctions witnessing skyrocketing fees has emerged over the last few years. The discussion took a serious turn when two Australian cricketers – Mitchell Starc (Rs. 24.75 crore) and Pat Cummins (Rs. 20.50 crore) – fetched humongous sums at the last mini-auction, held in December 2023.

Immediately after the auction, a few BCCI officials had stressed on the need to ensure India’s cricketers remain the biggest gainers from the IPL and the Governing Council has thus approved the formula designed by IPL chief executive Hemang Amin and his team.

Meanwhile, the Governing Council has also hiked reserve price for all the cricketers featuring in the auction. The minimum base price for capped cricketers has been raised from Rs. 50 lakh to Rs. 75 lakh, while that for uncapped cricketers has been increased from Rs. 20 lakh to Rs. 30 lakh.

As a result, the five brackets for the capped players for the 2025 auction will be Rs. 75 lakh, Rs. 1 crore, Rs. 1.125 crore, Rs 1.50 crore and Rs. 2 crore. Similarly, the uncapped players’ base price categories will be Rs. 30 lakh, Rs. 40 lakh and Rs. 50 lakh.