IPL 2023 Auction Updates: Date, Venue, Trade Rumours; Mini-auction to be held in Kochi on Dec 23, says report

Bengaluru, October 26: The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 players' auction is likely to be held in the month of December. The mini-auction ahead of the sixteenth edition of the premier T20 league will be held in Kochi on December 23. It will be the first instance that the auction will be held in Kerala.

Earlier, reports claimed that the BCCI - which is the richest cricket board in the world - had five venues in mind for the auction. Of those five venues, Istanbul's Turkey was also one of the venues the board officials had shortlisted. Bangalore, New Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad are also in contention for the host city. But the name of Kochi comes as a surprise pick.

The BCCI successfully hosted the IPL 15 as the tournament became a 10-team affair this year. Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants were the two new teams to make their debut in the most lucrative domestic T20 league in the world.

Hardik Pandya-led Gujarat Titans became the first team after the inaugural season champions, Rajasthan Royals, to lift the title in their debut year. The next edition will also see ten teams battle it out for the coveted title.

The auction for IPL 2022 season was also held in Bengaluru in the month of February. It was a two-day affair when 600 cricketers went under the hammer as the teams build their squads for the future.

The final list for the IPL 2022 auction comprised 228 capped players, 355 uncapped players and 7 players from Associate Nations. A total of 370 Indian players and 220 overseas players came to the auction table during the two-day event. 204 players were sold and Rs 551.70 crore was splurged by the franchises to purchase the players.

Auction date and venue:

December 23, which is a Friday, could be the day when the Auction for the next season of the tournament will be held.

Kochi will be the host city.

Purse:

As per reports, this year's auction will allow the franchises to have a purse of Rs 95 crore. It will be a raise of Rs 5 crore as the purse for all the teams in the previous edition was Rs 90 crore.

RTM:

Before the auction process, the teams will certainly release some players to fine-tune their squad and increase their purse for the auction. The teams will also have the right-to-match (RTM) card during the auction should they wish to buy back the players they released ahead of the auction.

Release/Retention/Trade Updates:

As the auction day will approach closer, the franchises will announce the list of players they are going to retain and the players they're releasing. As the IPL 2023 Auction will be a mini-auction, the teams will not release too many players. However, teams like Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Punjab Kings - who finished at the bottom half of the points table might release or trade some players.

Trade Rumours:

The biggest trade rumour ahead of the IPL 2023 auction is whether or not Ravindra Jadeja will stay at Chennai Super Kings. There were reports of a possible fallout between the player and the franchise after he was stripped of his captaincy halfway through IPL 2022 as the defending champions were losing matches consistently and MS Dhoni was reappointed as the captain of the franchise.