Babar Azam headlines galaxy of stars up for grabs at DP World ILT20 Season 5 Player Auction

Pakistan's all-format star Babar Azam is set to headline the DP World ILT20 Season 5 Player Auction on October 1, with fellow international stars Phil Salt, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Wanindu Hasaranga, Alzarri Joseph, Faf du Plessis and Liam Livingstone among others also featuring in the player pool.

The auction, scheduled to take place at the ICC Academy Indoor in Dubai, will feature more than 400 players from 23 countries. Players have been divided into three reserve-price categories: USD 80,000, USD 40,000 and USD 10,000.

Under the recruitment regulations for Season 5, franchises are not permitted to retain players from the UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, with all players from the three countries placed in the USD 10,000 category.

However, teams will have the option of using a Right to Match (RTM) card to re-sign a UAE player who either represented them in Season 4 or featured for them in the recently concluded DP World ILT20 Development Tournament.

Each of the six franchises has a salary cap of USD 2 million, including the USD 700,000 allocated earlier for Pre-Auction Signings. MI Emirates enter the auction with the largest remaining purse at USD 1,390,000, followed by Abu Dhabi Knight Riders (ADKR) with USD 1,365,000.

Inaugural champions Gulf Giants and defending champions Desert Vipers each have USD 1,305,000 available, while Sharjah Warriorz and Dubai Capitals, having fully utilised their USD 700,000 Pre-Auction Signings allocation, head into the auction with USD 1.3 million each.

Franchises must finish the auction with a squad comprising a minimum of 18 and a maximum of 23 players. Each squad must include at least 11 players from ICC Full Member nations, including a minimum of four Afghan players and one Irish player. Teams must also have at least four UAE players, one player each from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, and one additional player from an ICC Associate Member nation outside those three countries.

Franchises are required to spend a minimum of USD 1.5 million and can splurge up to USD 2 million, with the option of signing one Wildcard player after the auction for a maximum additional fee of USD 250,000.

Only players registered for the DP World ILT20 Season 5 Player Auction will be eligible to be signed as replacement players during the season. Players who withdraw from the auction on or before October 1 will be ineligible to participate in Season 5 either as a replacement player or as a Wildcard signing.

The tournament's playing-condition regulations also require every franchise to field at least two UAE players, two Afghanistan players and one additional Associate Member player in its playing XI. That final Associate Member slot can either be filled by a third UAE player or by a player from any other Associate nation, including Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

A look at some of the marquee names across the USD 80,000, USD 40,000 and USD 10,000 categories:

USD 80,000 bracket: Babar Azam, Phil Salt (Abu Dhabi Knight Riders), Tom Banton (MI Emirates), David Willey (Dubai Capitals), Fakhar Zaman (Desert Vipers), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (Gulf Giants), Usman Tariq (Desert Vipers), Jonny Bairstow (MI Emirates), Moeen Ali (Gulf Giants), Liam Livingstone (Abu Dhabi Knight Riders), Alzarri Joseph, Wanindu Hasaranga, Faf du Plessis, Taskin Ahmed (Sharjah Warriorz), Alex Hales (Abu Dhabi Knight Riders), Naseem Shah (Desert Vipers), Sahibzada Farhan, Fazalhaq Farooqi (MI Emirates), Chris Woakes (MI Emirates), Dasun Shanaka (Dubai Capitals).

USD 40,000 bracket: Jayden Seales, Ibrahim Zadran, Shadab Khan, Tabraiz Shamsi (Gulf Giants), Avishka Fernando, Hassan Nawaz (Desert Vipers), Shoriful Islam, Maaz Sadaqat, Kusal Perera, Gulbadin Naib (Dubai Capitals), Chris Green, Andre Fletcher (MI Emirates), Hunain Shah.

USD 10,000 bracket: Will Smeed, Lorcan Tucker (Gulf Giants), Asa Tribe, Shayan Jahangir (Dubai Capitals), Reeza Hendricks, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Ish Sodhi, George Munsey, Matt Potts, Bas de Leede, Tanzim Hasan Sakib.