 "The Indian Premier League auction will be taking place in the Arabian Peninsula for the third consecutive year with Abu Dhabi confirmed as the venue next month. Image: BCCI")
The suspense surrounding the upcoming Indian Premier League mini auction finally came to an end on Thursday with the event now set to take place in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, 16 December, according to ESPNCricinfo. It marks the second time the auction is taking place in the United Arab Emirates, with Dubai’s Coca Cola Arena having hosted the event exactly two years ago.
Another IPL auction in the Arabian Peninsula
The IPL auction is also taking place outside India for the third consecutive year, with Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah having hosted a two-day mega auction in November last year.
As is the norm for mini auctions, the upcoming event in Abu Dhabi will be a day-long exercise, with franchises expected to retain a bulk of their squads for the 19th season of the world’s biggest T20 league.
The event will also be taking place a little over a month after the player retention deadline, which has been set for 15 November by the IPL Governing Council.
Meanwhile the trading window, which had opened a month after the conclusion of the 18th season, will close a week before the auction next month. It will reopen after the auction, and will remain active until a month before the start of the 19th season.
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Two player trades have taken place so far ahead of the mini auction, with India pacer Shardul Thakur and West Indies middle-order batter Sherfane Rutherford joining Mumbai Indians from Lucknow Super Giants and Gujarat Titans respectively.
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View AllBoth Thakur and Rutherford have signed with MI on cash deals , and will be receiving the same fee that they had been getting at their previous franchises – Rs 2 crore and Rs 2.6 crore respectively.
Two other trades are reportedly in the works at the moment. Rajasthan Royals’ Sanju Samson is currently linked to a two-way trade with Chennai Super Kings’ Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran in what could be the biggest trade in the IPL since Hardik Pandya’s blockbuster move to MI from GT.
And in exchange for Thakur, LSG are likely to secure the services of pacer MI pacer Arjun Tendulkar.