ILT20 Season 5 Player Auction: Purse, rules and key mechanics

Dubai, 22 September 2026: The DP World ILT20 Season 5 Player Auction will be held in Dubai on Thursday, 1 October 2026, at the ICC Academy indoors facility. The auction will bring together all six franchises as they look to complete their squads for the upcoming season, following their Pre-Auction Signings that were announced in August.

• Each franchise will have a purse of USD 1,300,000 to spend at the auction, plus whatever spend remains unutilised from the USD 700,000 that was available for direct signings and retentions
 
• Squads must comprise 18–23 players, including a minimum of 11 players from ICC Full Member countries, at least four of which must be from Afghanistan and at least one of which must be from Ireland
 
• Squads must also include a minimum of four players from the UAE, a minimum of one player from Kuwait, a minimum of one player from Saudi Arabia and at least one further player from ICC Associate countries
 
• The DP World ILT20 Season 5 will be played from Saturday 21 November 2026 to Sunday 20 December 2026
 
The Auction rules, purse, and mechanics are explained below.

Auction rules

* Each franchise will have a purse of USD 1,300,000 to spend at the auction plus whatever spend remains unutilised from the USD 700,000 that was available for direct signings and retentions (remaining balance for each franchise will be announced before the DP World ILT20 Player Auction).
 
* At the end of the auction, each franchise must have spent a minimum of $1.5m and a maximum of $2m (excluding a Wildcard player that may be added after the auction).
 
* At the end of the auction, each franchise must have a minimum of 18 players and a maximum of 23 players. Within this there must be a minimum of 11 players from ICC Full Member countries (at least four of which must be from Afghanistan and at least one of which must be from Ireland), a minimum of four players from the UAE, a minimum of one player from Kuwait, a minimum of one player from Saudi Arabia and at least one further player from ICC Associate countries (excluding the UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia).

Player registration

* The minimum base price for all players is USD 10,000. Players may also have a base price of USD 40,000 or USD 80,000.
 
* The DP World ILT20 player registrations were completed between July and September – deadline September 12.
 
* Full member players and associate players (excluding UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia) had the option to set their own base price for the auction as per the following levels:
 
* USD $10,000
* USD $40,000
* USD $80,000
 
* Players from Afghanistan and Ireland had the option to set their base prices at the above levels, with the following provisos:
 
* To have a base price of USD $40,000, they must have been capped at international level and/or have played in DP World ILT20 previously.

* To have a base price of USD $80,000 they must have been capped 100 or more times at international level (may be cumulative across Tests, ODI and IT20).
 
* All UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia players have a base price of USD $10,000.
 
* If a player is injured, receives an international call up or does not receive an NOC, they may be replaced at any time until the end of the league phase of DP World ILT20 Season 5. Replacement players do not need to have been featured in the player auction. No additional players will be added after the auction and the Wildcard player, only replacements may be added to the squad.

Auction mechanics

* Players will be allocated sets on account of status (i.e. Capped UAE player/Full Member/Associate player/Uncapped UAE Player/Kuwait player/Saudi Arabia player) and specialisation (batsman, bowler, all-rounder, wicketkeeper etc).
 
* Each set will include six to ten players.
 
* Within the sets, players will be drawn at random, and the auctioneer will read out the player’s name and his base price. The auctioneer will then invite bids until there are no further bids.
 
* The base price of the player will be visible on screens during the auction, with the bidding shown in real time.
 
* Once a player has received his first bid in the auction, bids will be raised in the following increments:
 
* USD $2,000 for bids between USD $10,000 and USD $ 50,000;
* USD $5,000 for bids between USD $50,000 and USD $100,000;
* USD $10,000 for bids of USD $100,000 and above.
 
* Following the conclusion of all sets (Full member, Associate Member, UAE Players, Kuwait players and Saudi Arabia players), if franchises still have room in their squad, they may request up to eight players from the Accelerated Set to be put forward into the auction.
 
* Once all Franchises have spent their minimum total spend ($1.5m per team) and have fulfilled their minimum quotas of each type of player, they will be asked if they wish to end the auction. Once all six Franchises have fulfilled their minimum requirements and are either unable or do not wish to sign any more players, the auction will be declared finished by the auctioneer.

Player Right to Match

* Franchises will each have four Rights to Match to use during the auction:
 
* One for a Full member player that played for that Franchise in Season 4 (including Afghanistan and Ireland)
* One for an Associate member player that played for that Franchise in Season 4
* One for a UAE player that played for that Franchise in Season 4, or was part of their Development Squad in the 2026 ILT20 Development Tournament
* One for a Kuwait or Saudi player that played for that Franchise in Season 4
 
* All of these Rights to Match are optional and not obligatory.

Replacement players

* If a player is injured, receives an international call-up or does not receive an NOC, they may be replaced at any time until the end of the league phase of DP World ILT20 Season 5. Once the tournament support period has commenced, approvals for replacement players must be granted by the ILT20 Technical Committee.
 
* Replacement of mandatory players (i.e. UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Afghanistan or Ireland) must come from the pool of players that registered for the auction. Replacement players from other nations do not have to have registered in the auction.
 
*- ENDS -*