Overseas Players who pull out of IPL face 2-year Ban

A new rule means overseas players who pull out of an IPL season after being bought at an auction will receive a two-year ban.

The request to take action against players opting out after being signed had come from the IPL franchises during their meeting with the IPL governing council in July 2024.

Annoyed by late pullouts throwing their plans into disarray, the franchises asked the IPL to put in strong deterrents.

In a document, the IPL said: “Any [overseas] player who registers for [an] auction and, after getting picked at the auction, makes himself unavailable before the start of the season will get banned from participating in the IPL/IPL auction for two seasons.”

The governing council said the only exception will be for “an injury/medical condition, which will have to be confirmed by the [player’s] home board”.

The IPL has also agreed to the franchises’ suggestion to make it mandatory for overseas players to register for mega auctions.

They argued this would prevent players and their agents from trying to earn big money during the mini auctions, where teams are usually willing to shell out massive sums to plug specific holes in their squads.

This was evidenced at the last IPL auction.

Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad set auction records to sign Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins respectively.

Cummins was sold for Rs. 20.5 crore (£1.9 million) early in the auction process.

Starc went on to become the IPL’s most expensive player, going to KKR for Rs. 24.75 crore (£2.3 million).

To counter that, the IPL has come up with a twin strategy.

Firstly, an overseas player will not be allowed to register for a mini-auction if he does not register for the preceding mega-auction.

The IPL said: “Any overseas player will have to register for the big auction.

“In case the player does not register, then he will have to miss the subsequent small auction.”

“Only exception will be in case of an injury/medical condition which will have to be confirmed by the [player’s] home board before the big auction.”

The IPL has also decided to impose a “maximum fee” for overseas players at mini-auctions.

“Any overseas player’s auction fee at small auction will be lower of the highest retention price [of INR 18 crore] and the highest auction price at the big auction.

“In case the highest auction price at the big auction is INR 20 crore, then INR 18 crore will be the cap. If the highest auction price at big auction is INR 16 crore, then the cap will be INR 16 crore.

“The rule in place going forward is that the auction for the player will continue as normal till the player is sold, and the final auction amount will be charged to the auction purse.

“The incremental amount over INR 16 or 18 crore, as the case may be, will be deposited with BCCI.

“The incremental amount deposited with BCCI will be utilised towards players’ welfare.”