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ILT20 Season 5 Auction Details: Key Information and Strategies

The ILT20 auction is heading indoors, but the scale of it is anything but small.

Season 5’s player auction will take place in Dubai on October 1, with the ICC Academy’s indoor facility set to host more than 800 hopefuls from 20 countries who have put their names forward. That sprawling list will be cut down sharply in the coming days, with organisers trimming it to a shortlist of around 200 players for the six franchises to fight over.

There had been uncertainty around the auction date, but that has now been put to bed: October 1 is locked in.

Money on the table

Each franchise will walk into the room with a fresh auction purse of USD 1,300,000, on top of whatever remains from the USD 700,000 they were allowed to use on direct signings and retentions before the auction.

By the end of the day, every team must have committed at least USD 1.5 million and no more than USD 2 million on their squad – a figure that does not include a potential Wildcard player, who can be added after the auction is done.

The squads themselves will be tightly regulated. Each franchise must end up with a minimum of 18 and a maximum of 23 players. Inside that, the composition rules will shape strategies as much as the money.

A very specific squad puzzle

The league has doubled down on its identity as a blend of big-name Full Member talent and a broad Associate base.

Every franchise must sign at least 11 players from ICC Full Member countries. Of those, at least four must be from Afghanistan and at least one from Ireland, underlining how central those two nations are to the ILT20 project.

On top of that, there are clear quotas for regional and Associate talent:

  • A minimum of four players from the UAE
  • A minimum of one player from Kuwait
  • A minimum of one player from Saudi Arabia
  • At least one additional player from ICC Associate countries, excluding the UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia

The result is a draft board that will not just be about star power, but about ticking boxes without losing balance.

Base prices and registration

All registered players enter with a minimum base price of USD 10,000. Some will sit higher, at USD 40,000 or USD 80,000, depending on how they have chosen to value themselves and how franchises rate their impact.

Registrations for this auction window ran from July through September 12, giving agents and players a clear runway to position themselves before the shortlist is finalised.

Right to Match: four lifelines per team

The auction will not only be about new faces. Each franchise has four Rights to Match (RTM), powerful tools that allow them to bring back familiar names if the bidding goes elsewhere.

Each team can use:

  • One RTM for a Full Member player (including Afghanistan and Ireland) who played for them in Season 4
  • One RTM for an Associate Member player who played for them in Season 4
  • One RTM for a UAE player who either played for them in Season 4 or was part of their Development Squad in the 2026 ILT20 Development Tournament
  • One RTM for a Kuwait or Saudi player who featured for them in Season 4

If a former player sparks a bidding war, the RTM gives the original franchise a final say – and could turn the middle rounds of the auction into a tactical chessboard.

Replacements and late changes

The rules also recognise the realities of a packed global calendar. If a player is injured, called up for international duty, or fails to secure an NOC, the franchises will be allowed to replace them at any time up to the end of the league phase of Season 5.

Once the tournament support period begins, replacement signings will need the approval of the ILT20 Technical Committee, tightening the window for late moves.

There is one more layer of control. Mandatory-category players – those from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Afghanistan or Ireland – must be replaced from the original pool of players who registered for the auction. For players from other nations, replacements do not need to have been in the auction pool at all.

So the stage is set: a capped purse, strict composition rules, and a global cast squeezed into a shortlist of around 200. On October 1 in Dubai, six franchises will find out who can navigate that maze the quickest – and who leaves the room knowing they’ve just built a title-winning squad.

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