Venky Mysore
Venky Mysore. Photo Credit: KKR.

While only time will tell whether the mega-auction ahead of next year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) takes place or not, Venky Mysore, chief executive of Kolkata Knight Riders, has said it won’t be a bad idea if it is indeed postponed. There are murmurs that the mega-auction could be postponed because of the lack of time.

With IPL 2020 ending on November 10, the BCCI will have only four-and-half months to begin with the next IPL which is set to take place in its usual slot. In such a scenario, holding a mega-auction looks pretty much unlikely. The franchises too won’t have much time to plan for such an auction where they need to reassemble their squads from scratch.

IPL 2020 Auction, Indian Premier League
IPL auction (Credits – Twitter)

In the mega-auctions, barring a handful of retained players, all other players would go back into a mega auction. Franchises use these mega auctions to rebuild their teams for the next three-year cycle. The last mega auction, conducted over two days, was held in January 2018. On that occasion, as many as 169 players were sold.

“I’ve heard that as well and it’s not a bad idea to push it back by a year, considering we’ll have such a short period of time between the finals [this season] and the start of the next [edition] in April-May,” Venky Mysore told ESPNcricinfo.

“So it’s not a bad idea, but has to be thought through.

“There are various other ramifications of what it may mean contractually for the players and what not, but it [the mega auction being pushed back] has been done before when two teams were banned – the auction was pushed back by a year. So there is precedence to that. Whether this situation [pandemic resulting in a short window between two editions] warrants that, let’s wait and see, but it’s not a bad idea for the moment,” added Venky Mysore.

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The last auction was a mini one with the franchises using it only to fill few slots in their squads. Only 332 players had gone under the hammer at the mini-auction with 73 spots up for grabs for the eight franchises.

In the end, a total of only 62 players were sold in the one-day affair. With an eye on the mega auction in 2021, most of the teams did not go all out in the auction and only picked few selective players.

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