IPL 2018 auction to be held on January 27, 28

Mumbai, December 20: The mega-auction for the Indian Premier League 11th edition will be held on January 27 and 28, 2018 in Bengaluru. The auction will see the teams having an increased salary of Rs 80 crore from Rs 66 crore.

At the IPL Governing Council (GC) meeting, held on December 6, one of the members had expressed reservations about the auction clashing with the Johannesburg Test. Also some of the franchises were interested in seeing how the domestic players fared in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (India's domestic Twenty20 competition), which ends on January 28, ahead of the auction.

Of the five players, a franchise can retain a maximum of three through retention in the lead up to the auction, and a maximum of three through right-to-match cards during the auction. If a franchise does not retain any player before the auction, it can still retain only three using right-to-match cards.

A right-to-match card gives the franchise the ability to buy back its player during the auction by matching the highest bid made for the player by another franchise, once the bidding is over.

The other restrictions on player retention are: a maximum of three capped Indian players can be retained, and only two overseas players and two uncapped Indian players can be retained.