IPL to have mega auction in 2025, confirms league chairman Arun Dhumal

Hardik Pandya’s move from Gujarat Titans to Mumbai Indians gave birth to multiple reports of BCCI scrapping the mega auction in the future. However, IPL chairman Arun Dhumal dismissed all the reports and revealed that a mega auction will take place before IPL 2025. He believes that an auction gives a player an additional chance to earn more money than it would do for a player transfer, which is more common in football.

Dhumal added it also gives an edge to young cricketers, especially U19 cricketers, who don’t have the skill to deal with franchises. He mentioned that the players in Afghanistan gained massively because of auctions and they are not planning to scrap it anytime soon.

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“We will have the mega auction for sure, where you get to choose three-four players and then you have a new team. That makes it more interesting and that format will continue. Hopefully, the mega auction will be as big and as good as we have had earlier given newer talents coming in not from India and other countries. Teams like Afghanistan have also benefitted as they could showcase their talent,” Dhumal said while talking to Sportstar.

Playing for the country has to be the top priority for every player: Arun Dhumal

Ishan Kishan missing the entire Ranji Trophy and Shreyas Iyer opting out of Mumbai’s Quarterfinal match have created quite a buzz. Subsequently, BCCI drooped them from the annual central contract but the conversation did not end there. It was reported that Kishan prioritised the upcoming edition of the IPL over playing red-ball cricket by practicing in Baroda while being unavailable for his Ranji team while Iyer attended KKR camp after missing Ranji fixture citing back pain.

The incidents infuriated chief selector Ajit Agarkar as well as Jay Shah. Speaking of the same, Dhumal mentioned that playing for the country should be the top priority for every cricketer and real respect can only be earned when playing for the nation.

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“The IPL is an integral part of the BCCI and the BCCI is supreme. Playing for the country has to be the top priority for every player and we are very clear about that. Howsoever, money you may make, how glamourous you may become as a part of a franchise, real respect comes to you when you play for the country,” Dhumal said.