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The highly anticipated IPL 2024 auction is all set to get underway at the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai on Tuesday, December 19.
A list of 333 players across the globe will go under the hammer, with several cricketers likely to ignite a bidding war among the franchises. While 214 of them are Indian cricketers, the other 119 are overseas players, two of which are from associate nations - David Wiese of Namibia and Paul van Meekeren of the Netherlands.
Fans have also been curious about the TV and streaming telecast of the mini-auction to catch all the rivetting action. For the first time in IPL's history, the BCCI sold the rights for TV and digital separately.
While the Star Sports network retained the telecast rights, the digital/live-streaming honors went to Viacom 18. Thus, Viacom 18's JioCinema will provide live streaming on their website and mobile app, meaning Hotstar won't be streaming the auction live.
According to a post on Star Sports' Instagram handle, the auction coverage will begin at noon IST, while the bidding will start at 1.00 pm IST.
Key things to remember ahead of the IPL 2024 Auction
The 10 franchises have a combined 77 slots to be filled to reach their maximum 25-member squad, with 30 of them being overseas slots. Among the 300+ players, 23 are part of the highest base price category of ₹2 crore, while 13 are from the ₹1.5 crore base price bracket.
While IPL 2022 champions Gujarat Titans (GT) boast the highest purse of ₹38.15 crore, the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) possess the least at ₹13.15 crore. The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are the only franchise with double-digit slots to fill with 12.
Some marquee overseas names expected to garner the big bucks include Travis Head, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Rachin Ravindra, Daryll Mitchell, and Wanindu Hasaranga. A few big foreign names like Ben Stokes, Joe Root, Jofra Archer, and Shakib Al Hasan, among others, will also be missing.
A few Indian pacers like Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Harshal Patel, and Shardul Thakur could be in high demand among the franchises.
The off-season has so far been dominated by the return of Hardik Pandya to the Mumbai Indians (MI) and his replacing Rohit Sharma as captain.
There have also been a couple of other trades like the one between the Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). It involved Devdutt Padikkal and Avesh Khan and the all-cash deal between the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and MI for Cameron Green.
Mallika Sagar, who recently hosted the WPL auction, will take over from Hugh Edmeades and become the first woman auctioneer in IPL history.
