With days to go for the much-awaited Indian Premier League 2021 mini-auction, franchises would be excited and ready with all their plans. Reports suggest that the IPL Governing Council has decided to open the trading window after the auction is over. According to InsideSport, the trading window will be opened on February 19 – a day after the auction. The same report suggests that the IPL GC has informed the same to the franchise via mail.
Notably, the trade window was opened on 21st January and was closed down on 11th February. During this period, not a lot of trading was done by IPL teams. Only three cricketers were traded in the last window and the trade that made most noise was Rajasthan Royals selling veteran Robin Uthappa to Chennai Super Kings.
Royal Challengers Bangalore was the first team to trade players when they bought Daniel Sams and Harshal Patel in an all-cash deal from Delhi Capitals.
It would be interesting to see if franchises are keen on trading players after the auction. In the past, there have been instances when traded players have created a massive impact. Last year, 11 players who were traded included big names like Ravichandran Ashwin, Ajinkya Rahane and Trent Boult.
Franchises would be concerned about the availability of players from South Africa as they would be on national duty when IPL potentially starts. There could also be a problem with English and New Zealand players as they in all probability would miss the last two weeks of the lucrative league.
Reports suggest IPL 14 will tentatively start on April 11 and will in all probability be played in India.
