IPL 2025 Mega Auction: Why England's Ben Stokes and Joe Root could be ineligible to participate till 2027

Senior England cricketers Ben Stokes and Joe Root were notable absentees from the players' list for the 2025 Indian Premier League (IPL) mega auction after the duo withdrew from the two-day event. The IPL 2025 mega auction will take place in Saudi Arabia's Jeddah on 24 and 25 November with a total of 1,574 players going under the hammer. Stokes had also opted out of IPL 2024 citing workload and fitness issues. Root, on the other hand, played three matches for Rajasthan Royals (RR) in IPL 2023, and opted out of the IPL 2024 season before the auction took place.

Stokes and Root withdrawing from the IPL 2025 mega auction could also mean that the two players could be ineligible from taking part in the IPL till 2027. But why is that?

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Why Ben Stokes and Joe Root could be ineligible from playing IPL till 2027

According to a new BCCI rule, any foreign player who fails to register for a mega auction will be ineligible from taking part in the mini-auction the following year, which means the player, or players in question, won’t be eligible to play in the IPL for two straight seasons.  “Any Overseas Player will have to register for the Big Auction,” the BCCI rule says.  “In case the overseas player doesn’t register, then he will be ineligible to register in the following year’s player auction," adds the rule.

This rule comes in the aftermath of several England players, including Mark Wood and Harry Brook withdrawing from IPL 2024 after initially committing to participate.

More freedom for foreign players in the past

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This, however, has not always been the case. Foreign players in the past have had more freedom to give the IPL mega auctions a miss and register at the IPL mini-auction the next year. Stokes himself has done that. He had pulled out of the IPL 2022 mega auction, but the following year, at the IPL 2023 auction, he was snapped up by Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for a whopping Rs 16.25 crore.

Stokes, who made his IPL debut for the now-defunct Rising Pune Supergiant in 2017, has played 45 matches in the tournament till date. He has scored 935 runs and taken 28 wickets. The 33-year-old played just two matches for CSK in IPL 2023 before pulling out midway through the tournament due to a knee injury. Root, on the other hand, has played just three IPL matches, all coming for RR in IPL 2023, when he scored 10 runs across those three matches.