One of the biggest issues for many teams before the start of a new season in the Indian Premier League (IPL) has been their star overseas players after being sold, pulling out from the tournament at the eleventh hour. This has let many teams down in the past seasons, as their players showing personal reasons have denied their participation in the tournament.
During the recent meeting between the IPL committee and the owners of all the ten franchises, the discussion where all of them agreed without a second thought was put a two-year ban on overseas players should they make themselves unavailable for the season after being bought at the auction, without any legitimate cause.
Once a player signs for a team, they already start planning the formation of the side, instantly sitting at the auction table, and that also indicates the future player that they want to pick for the rest of the auction.
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On many occasions, many IPL teams have been hurt by overseas players pulling out on the eve of a new season, as the teams pointed out that the late pull-outs have a huge effect on the team’s strategies and various other plans. And because of that, it becomes quite tough for the teams to go for a new replacement from a small pool of players at the eleventh hour.
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The franchises told the league’s committee that they could understand if the player’s board is pulling out due to having international commitment or if he has suffered an injury or has family issues that almost make it impossible to join the squad.
They are happy to make allowance for such issues as long as there is clarity at the time of the auction about the player’s availability during the IPL season.
For instance, Jason Roy pulled out twice during the 2022 and 2024 seasons, as the same happened with David Willey and Gus Atkinson, where the latter looked to focus on the red-ball format, being involved in the County Championship, which generally starts during the period of the 20-over league.
Another problem that the franchises are facing is that on several occasions, a few players who are bought on the auction pulled out at the last moment, because of not earning a huge cheque. A team gave an example where the manager of a specific player said that his client would have been available had he gained more.
In the last two cycles, from 2018 to 2024, there have been times when the players have made themselves available during the mini-auction to earn a huge cheque and have avoided being part of the mega auction where the price isn’t expected to be sky-high.
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For example, during the last mega auction in 2022, Ishan Kishan got the highest bid when Mumbai Indians bought him for INR 15.25 crore, but in the last mini-auction of 2024, two Australian pacers, Mitchell Starc, and Pat Cummins, went for INR 24.75 crore and INR 20.50 crore respectively.
It will be quite important for the IPL to activate certain rules for the auctions. The franchises have stated that they would have no issues with a new or upcoming overseas player signing in the mini auction but a bigger name had to register for mega auctions. If they go unsold, they could enter the mini-auction in the following season.