The BCCI has decided to punish players who refuse to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL) after being chosen in the auction. Recently several players, mainly from other countries, have withdrawn from the profitable league, and all teams discussed this issue with BCCI officials earlier this year.
In the IPL Player Regulations for 2025-27 announced last week the BCCI stated that a player who becomes unavailable before the season starts will be banned for 2 seasons.
Also, there has been an increasing trend of overseas players skipping the big auction and only participating in the mini auction. The mini auction operates differently and often sees intense bidding.
For example during the last mini auction, top players Mitchell Starc (Rs 24.75 crores) and Pat Cummins (Rs 20.50 crores) were bought, but neither had participated in the auction before.
To prevent these situations, the BCCI now requires players to register for the big auction to be eligible for future auctions. “Any overseas player must register for the big auction. If they don’t, they won’t be able to register for the next year’s auction.”
Regarding fitness-related withdrawals, the BCCI will depend on confirmation from the player’s home board but plans to improve the process in the future.
Ideally they want a system at the new Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru where specialists verify these claims. It remains to be seen if the BCCI will pursue this. For now, the BCCI has made it clear to overseas players that they cannot pick and choose which auctions to attend.
