IPL 2018: 1,122 sign up for Players Auction in Bengaluru; 282 overseas cricketers in list

As many as 1,122 cricketers have signed up for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018 Players Auction to be held in Bengaluru on January 27 (Saturday) and 28 (Sunday).

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) today (January 13) announced that 778 Indians were part of the initial list which is sent to all the eight franchises.

Also read:  Who has how much money for auction?

"The VIVO Indian Premier League Player Registration closed on Friday, Jan 12, 2018, with a whopping 1122 players signing up to be a part of the mega VIVO IPL Player Auction 2018 scheduled to take place in Bengaluru on Jan 27-28, 2018," BCCI's acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary said in a media advisory on Saturday.

"As has been the trend over the last 10 seasons, world cricket's top stars and emerging talents have once again converged to add sparkle to the upcoming 11th edition. The list that has been sent out to the eight IPL franchises has 281 capped players, 838 uncapped players, including 778 Indians and three players from the Associate nations," he added.

Also read:  Full list of retained players for IPL 2018

The last date for retaining the players was January 4. All eight teams made their choices for the 11th edition of the league and now it is time to shop for the players in the auction.

Among Indian stars, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, KL Rahul, Ravichandran Ashwin, Murali Vijay, Ajinkya Rahane, Yusuf Pathan, Manish Pandey, Karun Nair and others will go under the hammer.

England Test captain Joe Root has entered the auction for the first time. His team-mate Ben Stokes, who played for Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) and limited-overs skipper Eoin Morgan are also in the fray. Stokes is expected to trigger a bidding war among franchises.

Australia leads with highest number of players among foreign countries. There are 58 from Down Under including Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, Chris Lynn, Pat Cummins and others. Retired internationals Shane Watson and Mitchell Johnson too have registered.

Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, World Twenty20 2016 final hero Carlos Brathwaite, Evin Lewis, Jason Holder are among the 39 from the Caribbean islands.

Veteran paceman Lasith Malinga, limited-overs captain Angelo Mathews, Niroshan Dickwella and Thisara Perera are among the 39 from Sri Lanka.

Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis, Quinton de Kock, David Miller, Morne Morkel, Kagiso Rabada will be part of the 58-man list from South Africa. However, there is no mention of Dale Steyn in the BCCI media advisory.

New Zealand stars Kane Williamson, Colin Munro and Tom Latham are among the 30 from their country.

There are no players from Pakistan in the auction list.

The country-wise breakdown of 282 overseas players is as below