"I think it’s ridiculous" - Michael Vaughan lambasts the scheduling of IPL auction midway through 1st AUS vs IND 2024 Test
Former England captain Michael Vaughan was left bemused by the decision to conduct the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 mega auction on November 24 and 25 in Jeddah. This clashes with the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Perth, scheduled to begin on November 22.
While both events will not run simultaneously from a broadcasting point of view, their proximity has complicated things for several individuals. The sheer pull of the IPL has forced the likes of Ricky Ponting, Justin Langer, and Daniel Vettori to abandon their duties Down Under and join their respective franchises' think tanks to conduct the rebuild.
Ponting and Langer will leave their broadcasting duties after Day 1 in Perth to take their places as head coaches of the Punjab Kings (PBKS) and the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), respectively. Daniel Vettori, the SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) head coach, has been granted permission by Cricket Australia (CA) to attend the auction.
“We are very supportive of Dan’s role as head coach of Sunrisers Hyderabad. Dan will complete final preparation for the first Test before attending the IPL auction. He will then be with the team for the remainder of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy,” CA said in a statement.
Vaughan feels that the organizers could have considered the ten-day gap between the first and the second Test to conduct the auction instead, making it convenient for everyone involved.
“I don’t agree with the fact that they put the IPL auction in the middle of the first Test. I think it’s ridiculous. We’ve got a nine day break in between the first and the second (Tests) why they’re putting it there when you know the players are under pressure playing in a Test match, why they’d want to sway the profile of that Test match onto an IPL auction in Saudi I’m not too sure,” Vaughan told Codesports (via The Indian Express)
The IPL franchises had announced their retention lists on October 31 and now head into the action with a mammoth purse, tasked with building a squad almost out of scratch.
"It's the worst possible case scenario for me and 'JL'" - Ricky Ponting on leaving the first Test for the IPL Auction
With ₹110.5 crore to play with, Ricky Ponting has a huge task up ahead after being appointed as PBKS head coach during the off-season. The franchise have only two uncapped players after the retention process and need to build a new squad to end the title drought.
"It's the worst possible case scenario for me and 'JL'. We for the last couple of months felt that it was probably going to be in the gap between the Test matches. It takes all the pressure off the players from both teams, there's a lot of players in both teams in the auction," Ponting told The Age (via India Today).
A total of 574 players have been shortlisted and will go under the hammer during the event spanning two days in Jeddah.