'I would be surprised if the Rs 20 crore barrier is not broken this year': Auctioneer Hugh Edmeades

The man that witnesses all the auction action first hand, High Edmeades has spoken up on the Indian T20 League mega auction. He has been the auctioneer for a long time in the Indian T20 League and has seen the prices of many players go up in the past. He expects that someone will break the 20 crore mark in the auction this year.

Every team has been given a purse  of 90 crores and the remaining value for each team ranges between 42 crores and 72 crores. All ten teams will take part in the auction actively, as they need to rebuild their teams.

Auctioneer Hugh Edmeades has said that since the purse value has gone up and the teams need more players, there will be a high demand. He has said that it will be surprising if a player does not reach the 20 crore mark.

In a chat with InsideSports, he said, "With each franchise being given an increased purse of Rs 90 crore, it is likely that individual prices will also increase. I don’t have a specific figure in mind, but I would be surprised if the Rs 20 crore barrier is not broken this year."

Adding to it, he said that the two-day auction will be a challenge for him. This would be his longest assignment as an auctioneer. Explaining his approach he said that he will divide the auction into bite-size sections.

"During my 38 years as an auctioneer, I have taken plenty of two-day auctions, but admittedly, none lasting a potential 12+ hours. However, I am not at all fazed by the prospect of being on my feet for up to six hours each day. Mentally and physically, I will be splitting the sessions into “bite-size pieces” and taking the opportunities to regroup during the breaks in the auction," he said.

Here are the details for the mega auction:

Date: February 12 and 13

Time: 11 AM IST onwards

Live Telecast: Star Sports Network

Live streaming details: Disney + HotStar

Retained/picked players:

Chennai: Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni, Moeen Ali, Ruturaj

Mumbai: Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Kieron Pollard

Bangalore: Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, Mohammed Siraj

Hyderabad: Kane Williamson, Abdul Samad, Umran Malik

Rajasthan: Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal

Kolkata: Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy, Venkatesh Iyer, Sunil Narine

Delhi: Rishabh Pant, Axar Patel, Prithvi Shaw, Anrich Nortje

Punjab: Mayank Agarwal, Arshdeep Singh

Gujarat: Hardik Pandya, Rashid Khan, Shubman Gill

Lucknow: KL Rahul, Marcus Stoinis, Ravi Bishnoi

Purse remaining: