IPL 2025 mega auction likely to take place in Saudi Arabia: Report

The Indian Premier League (IPL) Player Auction will reportedly take place in a foreign location for the second consecutive year with Riyadh set to host the event late in November. The IPL auction had taken place in an overseas location for the first time last year with Dubai’s Coca Cola Arena hosting the event on 19 December, and the high-profile event is set to return to the Arabian peninsula this year as well.

According to Sportstar, the mega auction this year will likely take place in the Saudi Arabian capital on 24 and 25 November, two days after India’s marquee five-Test series in Australia gets underway in Perth. The BCCI is yet to make a formal announcement on the same but the IPL franchises have been informed about the itinerary, as per the report.

London and Singapore were considered as potential venues for the auction but the board decided to zero in on Riyadh because of the favourable time zone, resulting in back-to-back auctions in the Middle East.

The BCCI, however, is yet to finalise a venue in Riyadh that can accomodate owners and other representatives of the 10 franchises along with the broadcast teams of Disney Plus Hotstar and JioCinema, the TV and digital broadcasters respectively.

The BCCI had earlier set 31 October as the deadline for the 10 franchises to finalise their retention list. As per the IPL Governing Council (GC), teams can retain up to six players from their existing squads – through a combination of retention and Right to Match (RTM), which has been brought back for this auction with a slight modification.

Australia captain Pat Cummins and pace colleague Mitchell Starc had smashed records in the last IPL auction, going to Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders for Rs 20.5 crore and Rs 24.75 crore respectively, the latter becoming the most expensive player in IPL history.