The Indian Premier League (IPL) players’ auction takes place on February 20 where non-iconic Indian and international players will go under the hammer. Sony television has exclusive rights to this event, said IPL chairman Lalit Modi.Similar to fantasy league — hugely popular among cyber generation’s football fans — each franchisee will sit at the auction with $5 million — the upper limit of buying players, minimum being $3.3 million — blinking on their computer screens. With their shopping basket bloating the figure on the screen will proportionally reduce. Modi said that there was demand from the franchisees to make the auction ‘open’, unlike the ‘closed’ bidding that took place to own teams. The bidding for players will be like a Sotheby’s auction. The minimum size of the squad is 16, with no upper limit. The players will be divided in various categories depending on their status and skills — elite marquee players, plus categories like openers, middle-order batsmen, pacers, spinners, all-rounders. “Since we will be auctioning category wise, it will be simpler for teams to pick their players,” said Modi.And, there was a demand for increasing the number of iconic players. The GMR group that won the Delhi franchise wants the elite status for Virender Sehwag, while Deccan Chronicle has the same demand for VVS Laxman. Different BCCI associations across the country have been attached to each franchise team, and they will form the ‘catchment areas’ to recruit four local players. The other binding clause for the team owners, besides pocketing a maximum of eight foreign cricketers, is to have four under-22 players in the squad. “Mr IS Bindra will be heading the infrastructure committee of IPL that will see to it that the stadiums are in top condition for the games,” said Modi.Aussies will comeModi was confident that the Australian players who wouldn’t be part of the tour party to Pakistan will be in India for the Twenty20 tournament. “I think things will be sorted in the coming days. But one has to remember that there are enough other international players in the league, the show doesn’t just depend on the Aussies,” he said.
