IPL 2025 Auction: Bigger, Fatter Mega Auction in Jeddah with Rishabh Pant as the cynosure | Opinion

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IPL 2025 Auction: The word 'prime time' referred to the news at night, mostly when people were glued to TV sets, after peak work hours. The very definition of 'prime time' was redefined by the Indian Premier League or IPL.

Sample this, on the morning of the first Test between India and Australia in Perth in the BGT series, the first bit of news which lands in your mail inbox is how the 2025 IPL will run for a good two-and-a-half months, from March to May 2025. And this window has been blocked for three years, from 2025 to 2027.

It is almost like an FTP (Future Tours Programme) being decided by the ICC for an international calendar. What it goes to show is how the IPL has become the real 'prime time' thing and the biggest show in cricket.

Fans will take love for cricket in all formats and Test cricket being pure, pristine and purposeful. All that is nice to hear and see, including the Perth Test. But the real deal is the IPL, how it has become an annual festival, the biggest, globally, across sporting disciplines.

The IPL proper is still over three months away, but over the next two days, November 24 and 25 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, big auction deals will be clinched. Sample this, in the middle of a Test match action in Peth, Nathan Lyon asks Rishabh Pant where he is headed in the IPL auction. In true Pant style, his reply is curt: "No idea."

Is this even real, in the middle of a Test match, an Aussie cricketer is talking about the IPL auction when his focus should be on the bigger action. It just goes to show, the IPL auction is an attraction as well as a distraction. One man continues to defy all odds, just as he fought back from the brink of death in December 2022, Rishabh Pant.

Not only has his comeback been a fairytale, but the kind of cricket he has been playing is audacious, including the gravity-defying six he executed on Friday (November 22), as if it was T20 cricket or an IPL match.

It is this fearless template of Pant, his humour, his chatter, which should see the IPL auction roar and soar over the weekend in Saudi Arabia. Pant himself will not be there, but he will make news in every possible way.

If one reads the kind of fancy price tags being attached to Rishab Pant at the IPL auction and which franchises will loosen purse strings or break the bank to buy him, it has been fascinating to read.

At the same time, it has also been very interesting to see mock auctions being conducted, where 'One India' has done it in more than just one language. It shows how important the IPL is and even the auction has reached a feverish pitch. IPL has become pan India, pan-global.

The commentary had already reached fans in various languages, now even the auction and predictions are going out in different languages. Who would have imagined an IPL auction in Saudi Arabia of all places!

Why not in India if a few ask, the petro dollars are there in Riyadh and the best hotels. In the middle of a Test series, even a coach is flying out to the auction, Daniel Vettori, plus commentator Ricky Ponting.

Mind you, some of these Aussie cricketers --- current and former -- who will be part of the IPL auction dynamics are ones who crave maximum. Rishabh Pant is the hottest cricketer up for grabs, but he will not come cheap. The same should be the case with Shreyas Iyer, winning captain of KKR as well as KL Rahul.

These three cricketers have shown they do not fear franchises and are ready to face the bidding war at the auction. Most importantly, they do not hesitate to tell the cricketing world, they do not wish to be part of their former franchises for various reasons.

Respect is one important thing which has now come out. So, if you have to choose between Perth and Riyadh, flick the channel button. An IPL auction has overtaken interest in a Test match. Long live IPL.