World Cup winner, 7 IPL players and a 16-year-old to feature in KCL T20 auction

The auction ahead of the second edition of the Kerala Cricket League (KCL) T20 will feature an exciting array of players, including World Cup winner Sanju Samson and a group of teenagers.

A total of 170 players have registered for the auction in categories A, B and C. The six franchises — Trivandrum Royals, Kochi Blue Tigers, Kollam Sailors, Thrissur Titans, Calicut Globstars and Alleppey Ripples — have a budget of ₹50 lakh to complete their squads. The auction will take place at Thiruvananthapuram on July 5.

Young and experienced
The youngest player in the auction is 16-year-old leg spinner Jaivin Jackson, who recently featured in the NSK Trophy, bagging two wickets for the Combined Districts team against Palakkad.

Category C also features promising Under-19 player Rohit K R (17), while 17-year-old batting star Manav Krishna, who was third among leading run-getters in the NSK Trophy, is part of Category B.

The oldest player on the list is former Ranji Trophy all-rounder K J Rakesh, who turned 42 in May. Aged 41, former Ranji Trophy player, Tejas C M, is another veteran in the auction list.

IPL players in the auction
Star wicket-keeper batter Sanju Samson is the biggest name in Category A. The 30-year-old, who captains Rajasthan Royals in the IPL, should be the most sought-after player at the auction.

Eight other Malayalis with IPL experience, at least as squad members, are part of the auction. They are pacers Basil Thampi, K M Asif and M D Nidheesh, all-rounders S Midhun and Abdul Bazith and opener Vishnu Vinod. A star addition to the auction this year is one of the finest guest players Kerala has had over the years, Jalaj Saxena.

Retained stars
Two of the six franchises, Thrissur and Kochi, chose not to retain any players from the inaugural season. The Trivandrum franchise retained three of its domestic stars, namely Govind Dev Pai (category B), Subin S and Vinil T S (category C) for ₹1.5 lakh each.

The other three franchises — Kollam, Alleppey and Calicut — retained the full quota of four players each.

Alleppey retained IPL 2025's breakout star Vignesh Puthur for ₹3.75 lakh. They also held on to star opener Mohammed Azahrudeen (₹7.5 lakh) and Ranji all-rounder Akshay Chandran (₹5 lakh) from category A, and Akshay T K (₹1.5 lakh) from category B.

Defending champions Kollam retained captain Sachin Baby (₹7.5 lakh), N M Sharafuddeen (₹5 lakh) and Abhishek J Nair (category B) and Biju Narayanan (category C) for ₹1.5 lakh each.

Last season's runners-up, Calicut, retained their skipper Rohan S Kunnummal (₹7.5 lakh), the consistent middle-order batter Salman Nizar (₹5 lakh) and Akhil Scaria (₹3.75 lakh) from category A, and Anfal from category B (₹1.5 lakh).