IPL 2017 Auction to be held on a new date in Bangalore

The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2017 auction was expected to be held in the first week of February in Bangalore but there was a delay and it is now scheduled to be held on February 20 in the city. Bangalore has hosted five of the nine auctions while it originally kicked off for the very first time in Mumbai.

Earlier it was reported that due to logistical reasons BCCI would want to host the auction in Mumbai which is also the home to the headquarters of the board. “Earlier, the IMG team in the last few years would head off to Bengaluru well in advance to start the back-end work. And then you had all the IPL governing council members heading to the city a few days prior to the auction. Having it in Mumbai also helps in keeping the cost under check,” he said.

A BCCI source had said that it might be held on February 19 or 26. “Today (Friday) is the last day for the interested players to submit their names to the list and ideally the available names will then be sent to the eight teams by say Monday. After that, the franchises will take a few days to prepare their preferred list depending on the kind of players they are looking to rope in and re-send the list to the governing council. Once that is done, the final list of players in the auction will be prepared.

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“So ideally, it will be the third or fourth Sunday of this month that will see the auction being conducted. Basically, it boils down to either February 19 or 26. It shouldn’t stretch to the first week of March as once the players are picked up, contracts and all formalities also need to be formalised between the franchise and the players. So, holding it back till March will be a little too late,” a franchise official was quoted by CricketNext.

The BCCI has been under the radar with constant changes in the management, there are legal battles going on and the Supreme Court and the Lodha Committee has been keeping a close eye on anything and everything that the board is doing. Recently the SC appointed a four-member administrative panel. Considering all this the franchise owners are not really upset with there being a delay in the auction process.

“Yes, we were earlier told that the auction would take place in the first week of February, but then it had to be delayed for obvious reasons. But that is okay because we all realise that the BCCI has had other priorities and there is a legitimate reason behind the postponement. We are in touch with CEO Rahul Johri and everything is under control.

“Also, the auction isn’t a major thing this time as an overhaul is anyway expected next season. So, we aren’t too perturbed as one thing is clear that the new dispensation has also made it clear that cricket will not suffer under any circumstance,” a senior official from an IPL franchise said.