IPL 2019: Franchises Not Happy as Auction Takes Place Amid Domestic Season

Amid the domestic season of Ranji Trophy 2018-19, the auction for the twelveth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will be held in Jaipur on December 18, making it the second such event in a calendar year.

However, the auction of 2019 edition of the domestic professional league IPL takes place early because of the ICC World Cup 2019 is scheduled in May-July. But an earlier auction hasn’t gone down well which some of the franchises as well as domestic players.

Moreover, in the past three years, the IPL auction has been held after the culmination of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Twenty20 tournament at the IPL franchises’ request since that helps them spotting new talents before making the call.

The Ranji Trophy also gets over before the auction gets over. Further, that gives the teams a clearer picture about players’ form.

Domestic T20 tournament will take place two months after IPL auction:

However, the auction is taking place in the middle of the Ranji Trophy leg which has started on November 1. The tournament will run till February 7.

In addition to,  Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament will start from February 21. It will be just two months after the IPL auction takes place.

According to a Times of India report, the IPL’s governing council (GC) is not functioning at the moment. However, this has taken the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) technical committee somewhat by surprise.

“The technical committee and fixtures committee scheduled the tournament keeping the IPL auctions in mind. However, it’s strange how the IPL auction could be slotted two months ahead of the domestic T20 tournament. Well, since there is no GC functioning. And no office-bearers were kept in the loop,” ToI quoted a BCCI official as saying.

Furthermore, the Mushtaq Ali tournament also helped the IPL franchises to pick up the talents who have served them well in the glitzy annual carnival.

Paceman Khaleel Ahmed, Basil Thampi and others have made names like that. Cricketers from nine new states have also registered their names for the impending bid.