The Indian Premier League (IPL) auctions for the 2023 season will take center stage on Friday (December 23) as big teams and their owners get ready for the bidding war in Kochi. With big names like Sam Curran, Cameron Green and Ben Stokes in the pool for the auctions, the franchises are expected to have a bidding war among themselves on will get the players of their favourite choice from the shopping list. But what happens if franchises run out of cash and two franchises are tied on the same amount?
What is Tie-Break Rule?
As per the auction rules shared with the franchises, it works out the following way. "If a franchisee makes a bid for a player that is the final bid that it can make for the player - i.e. the franchisee does not have sufficient remaining balance on its 2023 Salary Cap to make the immediately next bid for the player once the applicable bidding increment is applied and...
"If one or more Franchisee does make a Matching Bid for the player, the auctioneer will declare the player "sold" at a League Fee for 2023 in the amount of the Last Bid and will invoke the tiebreak procedure set out in paragraph 25 to determine which Franchisee will sign the player for 2023."
How will the Tie-break rule run?
BCCI will invite each Franchisee who made a Matching Bid for the player along with the Franchisee who made the Last Bid to each submit a silent written bid (the "Tiebreak Bid"), on a form to be provided by BCCI.
The Tiebreak Bid will indicate the amount, payable in one instalment, in Indian rupees that the Franchisee is prepared to pay to BCCI (not the player) in order to secure the player's services for the IPL 2023 season. NB. The amount of the Tiebreak Bid is separate from and in addition to the amount of the Last Bid or the amount of the Matching Bid as appropriate, both of which constitute the bid for the player.
The Tiebreak Bid is the separate amount, which the Franchisee is prepared to pay to BCCI and is not deducted from the relevant Franchisee's Salary Cap. There is no limit on the amount of the Tiebreak Bid.
BCCI to open Tie-break bids later
BCCI will then open the written Tiebreak Bids and the player will be awarded to the Franchisee who has made the highest Tiebreak Bid. If two or more highest Tiebreak Bids are equal, then only those highest bidders will be invited to repeat the process until there is a winner. The Tiebreak Bid amount will not be announced.
The winning Franchisee will enter into a 2023 standard form IPL Player Contract with the player with a League Fee in the amount of its Last Bid or Matching Bid as appropriate and will commit to pay to BCCI within 30 days of the Player Auction the amount of its Tiebreak Bid (or highest Tiebreak Bid if there were multiple rounds of bidding).
