Ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season, all teams are set to undergo a major overhaul as the mega-auction will be conducted later this year.

According to a Cricbuzz report, the grand auction is expected to take place in November 2024. The report also claimed that the auction is likely to be held overseas, potentially in the Middle East, with Dubai, Doha, or Abu Dhabi emerging as probable venues.

Saudi Arabia has also expressed interest in hosting the auction, but no final call has been taken regarding the venue yet.

Last year, the IPL auction was conducted outside India for the first time as Dubai hosted the event. It is also reported that the BCCI and IPL authorities long desired to host the auction abroad, with earlier discussions revolving around London and Istanbul. However, these plans did not materialize in previous seasons.

With the fast-approaching auction, IPL franchises are eagerly waiting for the announcement of retention rules. The BCCI has informed teams of a possible delay in releasing the rules, triggering concern among the teams regarding adequate preparation time.

It was earlier reported that the retention guidelines could be released by the end of this month, giving teams around two months to make strategies. The deadline for the teams to unveil their retentions is expected to be around November 15.

It would be interesting to see if the Right to Match (RTM) option is given to the IPL teams. In the 2018 mega-auction, a maximum of five players were allowed to retain by each team. Of the five, three players were retained before the auction, while up to three could be bought back by a team through the RTM option in the auction.

During the 2022 mega-auction, when Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants entered the IPL, the eight other teams were allowed to retain four players, but the RTM options were not used since the BCCI wanted GT and LSG to have a larger player pool to choose from.

(With Cricbuzz Inputs)