IPL 2017 Auction Likely in Mumbai on February 26

New Delhi: The Indian Premier League auction is likely to return to Mumbai this season after Bengaluru hosted the event in the last three seasons. The Garden City has been synonymous with IPL auctions over the years as it has hosted the event five times since the inception of the cash-rich league in 2008.

But the BCCI is toying with the idea of returning to Mumbai this season as it is logistically a better option. The inaugural auction of the IPL was held in Mumbai and the City of Dreams again held the auction in 2010, before it moved down South.

Speaking to CricketNext, a senior official from an IPL franchise said that the BCCI is likely to bring the auction back to Mumbai as it is logistically more convenient, considering that the BCCI headquarters and the team working behind the scenes to host the auction are from the city.

Mumbai has hosted the auction before in 2008 and 2010 and if all goes to plan, it could again hold the auction this season. The reason is that logistically it is more convenient as the BCCI headquarters, IMG’s head office in the country and the team that works behind the scene to organise the event all are from Mumbai.

“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 revealed.

Meanwhile, it looks like the auction which was earlier expected to be held on February 4, will now be held either 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.

“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,” one franchise official told CricketNext.

Even though the auction has been delayed, the franchises understand the transition that the BCCI is going through and aren’t too perturbed.

“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.

IPL AUCTION VENUES SINCE ITS INCEPTION:

2008 — Mumbai

2009 — Goa

2010 — Mumbai

2011 — Bengaluru

2012 — Bengaluru

2013 — Chennai

2014 — Bengaluru

2015 — Bengaluru

2016 — Bengaluru