IPL 2024 Auction: How does the player trade system work? Here’s everything you need to know
‘Trade’ suddenly has become something of a buzzword in the cricketing world over the past few days, all thanks to the Indian Premier League (IPL) that has become a central talking point among experts and fans alike. The world biggest T20 league, after all, is gearing up for another round of pitched battles, albeit in a glitzy hotel instead of a cricket stadium, with the player auction taking place on 19 December in Dubai.
The 10 franchises had until Sunday to announce their list of retained and released players but can make some last-minute changes via a trade or two until a week before the date of the auction.
The central talking point in the trading window however, was Hardik Pandya’s return to the Mumbai Indians after a couple of seasons with the Gujarat Titans.
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Rumours of Pandya returning to the franchise where he had spent seven seasons since his IPL debut in 2015 had been doing the rounds days before the IPL retention deadline on Sunday, 26 November.
Pandya had led the Titans to title victory on the franchise’ debut in 2022 along with a runner-up finish the next season and had initially been retained by the franchise as their captain on Sunday. His move to the Mumbai Indians, an all-cash deal worth Rs 15 crore, would officially be confirmed the very next day and Pandya would describe it as “coming home”.
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In order to make room for him in the squad, five-time champions MI would end up trading all-rounder Cameron Green to the Royal Challengers Bangalore for Rs 17.5 crore — the sum at which he had been bought by the Rohit Sharma-led side in the previous auction.
So what exactly is this trading window and how is it different from the player auction?
Here’s what you need to know:
Unlike the auction, where players are bought by franchises through the process of bidding, a trade takes place directly between two teams. The process, too, is a lot simpler compared to the auction, where franchise representatives often go into a frenzy over some of the more sought-after players.
A trade takes place when two teams either go for a direct player swap or when the beneficiary franchise pays the sum at which the player had been bought at the player auction. If there’s a difference in their price tags, the franchise with the player having the lower fee will have to pay the difference.
GT had signed Pandya for Rs 15 crore after he had been released by MI ahead of the 2022 mega auction. That is the exact amount Mumbai had to pay to bring him back into their fold.
Lucknow Super Giants’ Avesh Khan and Rajasthan Royals’ Devdutt Padikkal had been swapped by their respective franchises ahead of Sunday’s retention deadline. Another example would be Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Shahbaz Ahmad and Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Mayak Dagar swapping franchises on Sunday.
It’s worth noting that franchises can also pay a transfer fee besides the player’s price while going for a trade. The transfer fee, which is not made public, does not affect the auction purse for the franchise receiving the funds in any way.
It is equally worth noting that both the player as well as the franchise that owns it at the time of the initiation of the trade have a say in the matter. The consent of the player is required for a trade to be successfully completed while the home franchise also has the final say on the matter before it is officially declared completed.
How long does the trading window remain open?
The IPL trading window gets activated a month after the conclusion of a season and remains active till a week before the auction, meaning franchises can trade players till 12 December.
The window gets reactivated the very next day after the auction, and goes on till a month before the start of the next season.
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