Just over two weeks remain for the IPL 2026 auction and the hype is already rising consistently. On November 15, the ten franchises revealed their retention list and there were a few explosive trades as well, including the historic one between Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, involving Sanju Samson, Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran.
The upcoming mini-auction is set to be held in Abu Dhabi on December 16 and there will one big rule change that is set to be implemented for the first time in IPL history. It is regarding the salary cap for foreign players who are entering this mini-auction. IPL's Governing Council had made a set of rule changes in late 2024 and one of them was regarding mini-auctions.
There has been a trend of foreign players missing the mega-auctions, with an aim of minting money at the mini-auctions when options are lesser for teams to choose from. This ultimately results in exorbitant prices for foreign players and this rule change was made with an aim of controlling this. For starters, players need to register at the IPL 2025 mega auctions if they have to be available for the mini auctions.
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The bigger rule change is about the salary cap. Regardless of what the biggest successful bid for a foreign player is, there will be a cap on how much money he will receive. For instance, if Cameron Green gets sold for Rs 25 crore, he will not be getting that amount completely, which would be the case in mega auctions.
Instead, Green will only get as much as the highest-earning Indian player of the franchise he goes to or highest-earning Indian at the auction, whichever is lower. The remaining money will go to BCCI's player welfare fund. For example, if Chennai Super Kings are the ones who get Green for Rs 25 crore and if Venkatesh Iyer goes for a price of Rs 17 crore, then Green will only get Rs 17 crore.
The remaining amount of Rs 8 crore would then go to BCCI's player welfare fund. With this rule in place, it shall be interesting to see if the price dynamics around foreign players change in IPL 2026 or not. Nevertheless, overseas players, especially all-rounders, will still continue to attract huge bids.