IPL Auction: Dhawan, Shreyas, Ashwin in top bracket along with Cummins, Rabada, Marsh, Smith
New Delhi (PTI): Top Indian players, including senior opener Shikhar Dhawan and Shreyas Iyer, along with overseas stars such as Pat Cummins and Kagiso Rabada have been bracketed in the Rs 2 crore highest base price category for the upcoming IPL auction.
The mega auction is scheduled to be held in Bengaluru on February 12 and 13 and will see 590 players go under the hammer.
The IPL announced the final auction list on Tuesday, which was pruned from the original list of 1,214 players released last month, after the franchises reverted with the players they are interested in.
Among the 590 cricketers, a total of 228 are capped players while 355 are uncapped and seven belong to associate nations.
Senior Indian players Mohammad Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Ashwin, Ishant Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane have also registered with a base price of Rs 2 crore.
While Iyer and Dhawan are the top draws, the 10 teams are also likely to be involved in a bidding war for youngsters Ishan Kishan, Devdutt Padikal, Washington Sundar, Deepak Chahar, last season's top wicket-taker Harshal Patel, spinner Yuzvendra Chahal and fast bowler Shardul Thankur. All of them are in the top bracket.
A total of 370 Indian players and 220 overseas cricketers will be up for grabs, with as many as 48 players having chosen to place themselves in the Rs 2 crore bracket.
Among the foreign players the franchises are expected to go after pacers Trent Boult, Cummins, Rabada, the Australian duo of all-rounder Mitchell Marsh and Steve Smith, former Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan and big-hitting South African Faf du Plessis, who have all registered themselves in the top bracket.
Indian veterans such as Suresh Raina and Robin Uthappa, with a steep base price of Rs 2 crore, may not have many takers.
There are 20 players in the auction list with a reserve price of Rs 1.5 crore while 34 are in the list of cricketers with a reserve price of Rs 1 crore.
India's U-19 stars, skipper Yash Dhull, Vicky Ostwal and Rajvardhan Hangargekar, besides the likes of Shahrukh Khan, Deepak Hooda and Avesh Khan, will also be looking to cash in and make their mark during the auction.
South Africa's 42-year-old spinner Imran Tahir is oldest in the auction while 17-year-old Noor Ahmed of Afghanistan is the youngest. Noor is currently playing in the U-19 World Cup in the West Indies.
Among all U-19 players, Indian medium pacer Hangargekar has a better auction base price of Rs 30 lakh, compared to Rs 20 lakh for others.
Punjab Kings have the highest number of 23 slots available while Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Capitals, Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians have 21 vacancies.
The rest of the teams have 22 slots each.
Punjab Kings also head into the auction with the highest purse -- Rs 72 crore -- while the Delhi Capitals have the lowest -- Rs 47.5 crore.
Australia topped the overseas list with 47 players while 34 cricketers from the West Indies will also go under the hammer.
South Africa have 33 players, Sri Lanka 23, England 24, New Zealand 24 and Afghanistan 17.
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— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) February 1, 2022
A bidding war on the cards ππ» ππ»
Here are the 1β£0β£ Marquee Players at the 2β£0β£2β£2β£ #IPLAuction π½ pic.twitter.com/lOF1hBCp8o
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TikTok shuts down as US ban takes effect
Houston: TikTok’s app effectively shut down in the US, just hours before a law banning the popular video-sharing platform was set to go into effect. The app was shut down on Saturday.
“A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the US Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now,” a message reads when American users open the app.
“We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!”
While the Biden administration dismissed TikTok’s shutdown threat as a "stunt" and handed enforcement to the Trump administration, TikTok maintained that without clear assurances, it had no choice but to suspend its services in the US.
An internal email to employees stated that President Trump has expressed his intention to work on a solution to restore TikTok once he assumes office on January 20th. TikTok assured teams are working to resume services as soon as possible.
On Saturday evening, a warning appeared in both TikTok and CapCut apps at 9 PM Easten time:
"We regret that a US law banning TikTok will take effect on January 19th, forcing us to temporarily suspend our services. We’re working to restore our service in the US as soon as possible. Thank you for your support. Stay tuned."
By 10:30 PM ET, users were blocked from accessing both apps, with TikTok displaying a message that the app "isn’t available right now," but expects resolution under President-elect Trump.
It comes after days of speculation and confusion over the platform’s future.
The Supreme Court on Friday unanimously upheld the divest-or-ban law, which gave TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance until Sunday to divest from the app.
The law directed Apple and Google to remove the service from app stores. It also required web-hosting firms, including TikTok's back-end cloud provider, Oracle, to stop supporting the app or face penalties that could reach into the billions of dollars, NPR reported.
Trump said Saturday that he would most likely give TikTok a 90-day extension.
“The 90-day extension is something that will be most likely done, because it’s appropriate. You know, it’s appropriate. We have to look at it carefully,” Trump said in a call with “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker. “It’s a very big situation.”
The law, which passed Congress with wide bipartisan majorities and was signed by President Biden in April, allows the president to provide a 90-day extension, as long as progress is being made toward a divestiture.
Following Friday’s Supreme Court decision, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew thanked the president-elect for his commitment to finding a solution to keep the app accessible in the US, Chew who met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago last month, is set to attend Monday’s inauguration, the Hill reported.
While the app’s message and Trump’s remarks suggest the app could be revived in the US soon, it remains unclear exactly what that would look like and how long a divestiture deal could take to hammer out.
JUST IN - TikTok officially goes offline in the US. pic.twitter.com/QpJU97grSh
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) January 19, 2025
