All you need to know about the silent tie-breaker bid in the Indian T20 League 2023 mini auctions

The Indian Cricket Board has brought back the tie-breaker rule, which will be used when two franchises are locked in a similar bid for a player and don’t have sufficient funds to outright secure his services. This is because many franchises in the IPL Auction 2023 are operating on low funds.

The rule will be applied at the eagerly awaited Indian T20 League 2023 Auction, which begins today, December 23, at 2:30 p.m. In the mini-auction, 405 players’ futures will be decided. Out of the 991 players that submitted their names, the 10 franchises had previously selected 369 players for the auction. Later, the franchises requested the addition of another 36 players to the roster.

When a franchise places a final bid for a player and is tied with other franchises and is no longer able to place any additional bids because of financial constraints, the tie-breaker rule will be put into effect. In this case, the arbitrators will declare the player “sold” at the latest offer value and use the tie-breaker method to choose which team will sign the player.

How does the tie-breaker rule work?

Each franchisee who submitted a matching offer will receive an invitation from the Indian Cricket Board to submit a written silent bid on a form. The tiebreaker bid will represent the sum that the franchisee is prepared to give the Indian Cricket Board (rather than the player) in a single payment in order to secure the player’s services for the Indian T20 League 2023 season. This sum is in addition to the previous bid’s sum. The tiebreaker bid is an additional sum, not included in the applicable franchisee’s salary cap. The size of the tiebreak bid is unrestricted by the board.

The player will be awarded to the franchisee with the highest bid once the Indian board has reviewed the silent bids.

What happens if the tie-break bids are equal?

Franchisees will be contacted once more to continue the process until a winner is selected if the highest tie-break bid for two or more franchisees is equal. However, the tie-break bid amount won’t be made public by the Indian Cricket Board.

When the franchisee wins the bid, the player and franchisee will sign a contract stipulating that the franchisee will pay the player the League Fee, which is the final bid or matching price, and that the franchisee will also pay the board the amount of the tie-break bid within 30 days of the auction.