Mega or mini IPL auction in 2021? BCCI president Sourav Ganguly gives update

Auctions are a big part of building a franchise. With COVID disrupting the entire 2020 IPL schedule there were reports that the IPL 2021 auction would be a mini-auction and not a mega auction as planned earlier. This has come in as a big blow for franchises such as Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals who were hoping to rebuild their squad entirely for the coming season. With doubts still raised regarding the upcoming auction criteria, the BCCI chairman Sourav Ganguly has given his say on the same in his recent interview.

IPL 2021: Mega auction or Mini-auction?

With the IPL 2020 almost reaching its flag end, teams at the bottom of the table like Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals are looking forward to the coming auction to secure some top stars to rebuild their entire team. Especially for CSK many of their players who represented them this year may not even feature in the next edition. This list is most likely to include names like Kedar Jadhav, Piyush Chawla, and Murali Vijay. Whereas some franchises like KXIP would be hoping to release their heavily paid players like Sheldon Cottrell and Glenn Maxwell. With all these in the hindsight, what the teams need now is clarity about the nature of the coming auction. If not for COVID-19, the IPL auction 2021 was sure to be a mega auction where teams would be allowed to retain just 5 players (as a combination of retention and RTM cards). This would have helped teams like CSK to rebuild their squad entirely. But with COVID-19 in place and the next season most likely to start very soon, many experts have predicted that there won’t be a mega auction after this year.

Sourav Ganguly gives clarification

When asked about the same the BCCI president Sourav Ganguly clarified that the decision regarding the next auction is not yet finalized.

“We haven’t decided anything yet. Let this season conclude, we will take a call,” BCCI president Ganguly was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times on being asked about player auction next year.

He also added that the BCCI is planning to conduct the next IPL in India provided the current health crisis in India gets back to normal. If not UAE will stand in as the backup once again. The next IPL is scheduled to begin in April 2021.