IPL 2025 – Franchises ask for two-year ban on overseas players pulling out after being bought at auction

Many IPL teams have been hurt by overseas players pulling out on the eve of a new season citing personal reasons. They pointed out that such late pullouts have a detrimental effect on team performance because strategies are devised keeping these overseas names in mind and their sudden unavailability leaves the franchises scrambling to find replacements from a much shallower pool of international talent.

The franchises told the IPL they could understand if the player’s board was pulling him out to honour an international commitment, or if he has suffered an injury, or has family commitments that render him incapable of joining the squad. They were happy to make these allowances so long as there was clarity at the time of the auction about the player’s availability during the IPL season.

The problem the franchises are facing is that on several occasions, players who are bought at base price pull out post-auction. They even provided an example of a player’s manager telling a franchise his client could be available if he was paid more.

The franchises also told the IPL that there were several instances of prominent overseas players skipping the mega auctions over the last two cycles (2018-24) but making themselves available for the mini-auctions in order to attract big bids. This tends to happen because of the short supply of high-quality talent in mini-auctions.

The franchises felt some of these players and their managers were attempting to game the system so it was essential for the IPL to put certain checks in place. The franchises said they understood if a new or upcoming overseas player registered for mini-auctions, but bigger names had to register for mega auctions. If they go unsold, then they could enter the mini-auction the following season.