The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has been considering different venues for the upcoming two-day mega auction before the 2025 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). No specific location has been finalized for the tournament. However, the board has kept an eye on the different Saudi cities for the auction.
Riyadh and Jeddah are definitely in the minds of the officials. The Dubai International Cricket Stadium in the United Arab Emirates is also an option but not the preferred one for the IPL committee, as they also look for the last week of November as the potential date of the auction.
India will be facing Australia from November 22 at the Optus Stadium in Perth before they move to Adelaide for the day-night encounter. There is a gap of around a week between those two games, and that could be the potential period for the IPL auction.
The reports have claimed that finding a suitable venue or a hotel has proved to be the biggest challenge for the BCCI so far, as the pricing shouldn’t be a significant factor for the franchise owners of the Indian Premier League (IPL), one of the richest leagues of the world.
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Without a shadow of a doubt, the BCCI is arguably the richest sports body, but even identifying a venue in Saudi Arabia has particularly become very difficult. The costs in Saudi Arabia are reportedly much higher than in Dubai, where the previous mini-auction in December 2023 was held.
The reports also expressed that London could be the shortlisted venue for the league, but the BCCI has decided to go against holding the auction in the UK due to the cold weather at that period of the year.
The BCCI and the officials of the league have been looking for a place where they can host the auction for two days and accommodate the entire coverage of the IPL, including the ten franchises and other vital members, besides the two broadcasters, Jio and Disney Star.
MS Dhoni to meet the CSK officials to decide IPL 2025 retentions
Even though the Governing Council (GC) of the league has modified the ‘uncapped player’ rule of the league, where they stated that an Indian player who hasn’t played international cricket for nearly five years, going into the respective season of the event, can be coined as an uncapped player.
In that case, the former captain of the Chennai Super Kings (CSK), whose last game for the Blue Brigade came nearly five years ago during the ODI World Cup 2019, can be called the uncapped player, and the Yellow franchise can retain him for a price of just INR 4 crore.
But, there is no guarantee on whether the wicket-keeper batter will be playing in the upcoming season. If the franchise retains him for 2025 at the age of 43, then by the time they get another chance at the mega auction, he will be around 46.
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The first sign of Dhoni potentially looking to get away from the IPL was when he handed over the responsibility of captaincy to their opening batter, Ruturaj Gaikwad, who had a decent season in the tournament as the leader of the side. But, the franchise won’t want the World Cup-winning captain to get away from the side, which could drop their brand value.
The deadline for the franchises to submit their list of retained players is October 31.