Why overseas players won’t earn more than $22 million at the IPL 2026 Abu Dhabi mini-auction?

Highlights:

The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 mini-auction in Abu Dhabi is expected to be highly competitive, with several franchises entering the room with large budgets. However, no overseas player will walk away with a contract worth more than about $22 million, even if bidding goes far beyond that figure.

This restriction comes from a rule introduced by the IPL organizers after massive overseas signings shocked the league just a few seasons ago. In the 2023 auction, Australian fast bowler Pat Cummins became the first player in IPL history to cross the $24 million mark when Sunrisers Hyderabad signed him for roughly $25 million. Soon after, Mitchell Starc raised the bar even higher, earning close to $30 million from Kolkata Knight Riders after returning to the league following a long absence.

These record-breaking deals raised concerns about financial balance and long-term sustainability. As a result, the IPL governing body revised the auction rules to place an effective cap on how much overseas players can actually earn, regardless of how high bidding goes.

Under the revised system, an overseas player’s final salary is limited to the lower of two values: the highest retention bracket or the highest auction price from the previous mega auction. For IPL 2026, the top retention bracket is set at about $22 million. Although Indian wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant was bought for a staggering $32.5 million by Lucknow Super Giants in last year’s mega auction, that figure does not raise the cap for overseas players.

This means that even if franchises like Chennai Super Kings or Kolkata Knight Riders, both holding budgets exceeding $48 million, aggressively bid for a foreign star, the player will only receive up to the $22 million limit. Any amount bid beyond that goes unearned by the player and does not increase their contract value.

The rule applies only to overseas players, ensuring Indian players can still benefit fully from open-market bidding. The goal is to maintain competitive balance while preventing runaway salaries for foreign cricketers.

Interest in overseas talent remains high. In the IPL 2026 mini-auction pool, 41 players have set their base price at around $2.4 million, and 39 of them are overseas players. Big names include Devon Conway, Cameron Green, David Miller, Steve Smith, Wanindu Hasaranga, Liam Livingstone, Rachin Ravindra, Anrich Nortje, and Matheesha Pathirana.

While bidding wars are almost guaranteed, overseas stars now know that prestige, team fit, and winning potential—not just money—will define their final IPL destination in Abu Dhabi.