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New Delhi: South Africa T20 League Commissioner Graeme Smith has commented on the absence of Indian players in the overseas auction pool for the upcoming season of the league. None of the Indian players featured in the overseas auction pool which prompted the veteran South African star calling it a 'fluid situation'.
A total of 241 players will go under the hammer for 25 slots while 308 South Africans will compete for 59 places in the SA20 2025-26 auction to be held on September 9 in Johannesburg. Speaking to Indian media in a virtual interaction on Friday, Smith said that Indian players is always a fluid situation depending on who's retiring and who's available.
The South African further said that as per him, there were 13 or 14 Indian players featuring in the auction including names such as Piyush Chawla, Siddharth Kaul, Ankit Rajpoot, Sarul Kanwar, Anureet Singh Kathuria, Ansari Marouf, Mahesh Ahir, Nikhil Jaga, Mohamed Faidh, KS Naveen, Imran Khan, Venkatesh Galipelly, and Atul Yadav.
But none of the players could make it to the short list as the Indian cricket board (BCCI) bars active Indian cricketers - domestic or international, from taking part in any overseas leagues to protect the exclusivity of the Indian Premier League (IPL). As per BCCI rules, players must first retire from all forms of Indian cricket and then secure an NOC from the BCCI before they start seeking overseas opportunities.
Senior off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who retired from the IPL recently, has fallen into that category and registered for UAE's ILT20 which would be held around the same time. Commenting further, Smith said that Indian players missing from the auctions for an overseas league is nothing new to us. Initially the auction list comprised 800 players while later it got reduced by a big margin after name were cut down.
