Indian Premier League (IPL) governing council, after the virtual meeting on Monday, has decided to organise the auction for the 14th edition of the cash-rich league (IPL 2021) on February 11. But the venue for holding the auction hasn’t been finalised either.
Apart from this, the other important decision taken is that the eight franchises have to submit the lists of retained and released players before the set deadline that is January 20.
The IPL 2021 auction will take place in the short break between the first and the second Test of the India-England Test series which begins in February.
IPL 2021 venues are yet to be decided:
The outbreak of the new coronavirus strain has made the future more uncertain although India has so far no major hotspot.
According to ESPNCricinfo, The IPL governing council had discussed the various options for the venue considering the pandemic throwing up several challenges regularly. But it is understood that they have also retained the UAE, who organised the last edition, as one of the options.
The other option which has been discussed is rather than conducting matches on a home-and-away basis, they might opt to organize the tournament at few venues which would entail minimal travel for teams.
With venues being unconfirmed, the franchise might find it hard to retain or release players because the conditions also play a big role in building a team.
And a franchise like Chennai Super Kings, who needs a full makeover after a disappointing 13th edition of the league, the IPL 2021 auction is important.
Talking about purse value, like every year the IPL is likely to enhance the auction purse by INR 3 crore. Incidentally, the CSK has the smalled purse, having left just 0.15 crore in the purse after the last year’s auction. Currently, Kings XI, Punjab has the largest balance of INR 16.5 crore.