The Indian Premier League (IPL) Governing Council had opened up a trade window for the franchises to deal players in the off-season ahead of the 2019 edition. The final date to release the names that they want to release and retain is fast approaching and thus the first deal was made today. South Africa’s Quinton de Kock is the first player to have been traded between teams. The former Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) player will now feature in the Mumbai Indians (MI) side. RCB chose to make it a money deal and sold Quinton for his auction price of ₹2.8 crore.
As per the reports in ESPNcricinfo, MI bought De Kock to make up for it released two players worth the same value on the purse. Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman whom they had bought for ₹2.2 crore along with Sri Lankan spinner Akila Dananjaya who cost them ₹50 lakh in the IPL 2018 auction have been thus released.
It has also been speculated that MI will let these two players go as they already have a set of overseas player for the necessary roles. De Kock, on the other hand, gives Mumbai the option of an opener who can get them off to a flying start something they relied on Windies’ Evin Lewis for in the previous edition.
WATCH – Quinton de Kock grabs a peach of a catch
IPL has given the teams two opportunities to swap or let go players in the off-season window and a mid-season window as well which allows them to release uncapped players who have played less than two matches. November 15 is the last date for the teams to name the players they want to retain and those they want to put back in the auction pool. Thus the teams are getting into action mode and making the decisions.
Though there is no official confirmation about the auction date for IPL 2019, It has been expected to be taking place mid-December, as per reports of Cricinfo. At the same time, the GC will also tell the teams about the details of where the upcoming season of the tournament will be hosted. IPL 2019 will have to be moved out of India with the general elections to be held around the same time.
The two likely hosts for the tournament are UAE and South Africa. BCCI is probably waiting for the election commission to announce the dates for the elections and plan their course of action based on that.
