IPL 2023 mini auction: Cameroon Green, Ben Stokes enter with Rs 2 crore BASE price, no Indian in THIS category

All-rounder Cameroon Green and Ben Stokes along with the likes of Sam Curran and Adil Rashid have put up their names for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 mini auction which will take place in Kochi on December 23 in the highest base price category of Rs 2 crore. Along with them, the likes of New Zealand captain Kane Williamson, who was released by Sunrisers Hyderabad before the auction, is also in the Rs 2 crore-bracket as 991 cricketers have registered for the auction. Out of these, there are 714 Indians and 277 overseas players in the auction but there are no Indians in the Rs 2 crore base price.

Apart from Stokes, Curran, Green and Williamson, the likes of Nicholas Pooran, Chris Jordan, Rilee Rossouw, and Rassie van der Dussen are the other noticeable names among 21 players, who have been included in the highest bracket. A notable exclusion from the overall list is veteran Australian pacer Mitchell Starc who hasn’t registered. On the other hand, Australia’s Test and ODI captain Pat Cummins had earlier pulled out citing workload issues.

The IPL Player Registration closed on November 30, 2022, and the long list includes 185 capped, 786 uncapped and 20 players from associate nations.

As per a BCCI release, the players have been divided into various categories – capped Indian (19 players), capped international (166), associate (20), uncapped Indians who were a part of previous IPL seasons (91), uncapped international who were a part of previous IPL seasons (3), uncapped Indians (604 players), uncapped Internationals (88 players).

Notably, if every franchise were to have a maximum of 25 players in their squad, 87 players are available to be bought in the auction (of which up to 30 players can be overseas players). In what is a first, not one Indian player is listed in the highest reserve price band of Rs 2 crore. Amongst the Indian players registered, those with a base price of Rs 1 crore are Mayank Agarwal, Manish Pandey and Kedar Jadhav.

NEWS- 991 players register for TATA IPL 2023 Player Auction.

A total of 991 players (714 Indian and 277 overseas players) have signed up to be part of the TATA IPL 2023 Player Auction set to take place on 23rd December 2022 in Kochi.

More details here - https://t.co/JEpOBUKcKe — IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) December 1, 2022

Indian national players like Ajinkya Rahane, and Ishant Sharma, who are not in the scheme of things as of now, have reduced their prices for the auction. Rahane`s base price this time is Rs 50 lakh while Ishant, who had gone unsold in 2022, is asking for Rs 75 lakh.

Left-arm fast bowler Jaydev Unadkat, who has been among the highest-paid players at IPL auctions, has listed his base price at Rs 50 lakh. Unadkat, who has been in great form having led Saurashtra to the Vijay Hazare Trophy final, where he is the leading wicket-taker, was released by Mumbai Indians, who had bought him for Rs 1.3 crore in 2022.

Last month, franchises had announced the list of their retained and released players and the Sunrisers had the largest purse (Rs 42.25 crore) for the auction, followed by Punjab (Rs 32.20 crore), Lucknow (Rs 23.35 crore), Mumbai (Rs 20.55 crore), Chennai (Rs 20.45 crore), Delhi (Rs 19.45 crore), Gujarat (Rs 19.25 crore), Rajasthan Royals (Rs 13.2 crore), RCB (Rs 8.75 crore) and KKR (Rs 7.05 crore).

Rs 2 crore list: Nathan Coulter-Nile, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Chris Lynn, Tom Banton, Sam Curran, Chris Jordan, Tymal Mills, Jamie Overton, Craig Overton, Adil Rashid, Phil Salt, Ben Stokes, Adam Milne, Jimmy Neesham, Kane Williamson, Rilee Rossouw, Rassie van der Dussen, Angelo Mathews, Nicholas Pooran and Jason Holder.

Rs 1.5 crore list: Sean Abbott, Riley Meredith, Jhye Richardson, Adam Zampa, Shakib Al Hasan, Harry Brook, Will Jacks, Dawid Malan, Jason Roy, Sherfane Rutherford

Rs 1 crore list: Mayank Agarwal, Kedar Jadhav, Manish Pandey, Mohammad Nabi, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Moises Henriques, Andrew Tye, Joe Root, Luke Wood, Michael Bracewell, Mark Chapman, Martin Guptill, Kyle Jamieson, Matt Henry, Tom Latham, Daryl Mitchell, Heinrich Klaasen, Tabraiz Shamsi, Kusal Perera, Roston Chase, Rakheem Cornwall, Shai Hope, Akeal Hossein, David Wiese

(with IANS inputs)