ILT20 Season 5 Player Auction: Dubai's Talent Hunt Begins

Dubai will once again sit at the heart of the franchise game’s talent hunt when the ILT20 Season 5 Player Auction rolls into the ICC Academy indoor facility on October 1.

The date had floated in uncertainty for a while, prompting confusion among franchises and agents. That is over. The organisers have locked in October 1, and the countdown has started.

More than 800 players from 20 countries have thrown their names into the ring. Only around 200 will make the final shortlist. Six franchises, one room, and a trimmed pool of hopefuls chasing a slice of one of T20’s most lucrative emerging leagues.

Big purses, tight boundaries

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

There is freedom, but not chaos. By the end of the auction, every team must have spent at least USD 1.5 million and no more than USD 2 million. That figure does not include a Wildcard player, who can be added after the auction and could yet reshape a squad’s balance.

Squad size is tightly controlled: a minimum of 18 players, a maximum of 23. The real complexity lies in the composition.

Each franchise must include:

• At least 11 players from ICC Full Member countries
• • Of those, at least four must be from Afghanistan
  • At least one must be from Ireland
• A minimum of four players from the UAE
• At least one player from Kuwait
• At least one player from Saudi Arabia
• At least one additional player from ICC Associate nations, excluding the UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia

It is a draft board that forces teams to think beyond the usual power bases. Afghanistan’s influence on the league is baked into the rules. So is the UAE’s, and the presence of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia underlines the tournament’s regional ambition.

Base prices and the battle for value

The auction will not be cluttered with sky-high reserve prices. The minimum base price sits at USD 10,000, with two higher brackets at USD 40,000 and USD 80,000.

Player registrations ran from July through September 12, giving agents and players a defined window to position themselves. The shortlist now becomes the battleground, where perceived value and actual demand collide.

Rights to Match: keeping old flames

Franchises do not arrive empty-handed. They each hold four Rights to Match, powerful tools that can keep familiar faces in familiar colours.

Each team can use:

• One Right to Match on a Full Member player (including Afghanistan and Ireland) who played for them in Season 4
• One on an Associate Member player who represented them in Season 4
• One on 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 on a Kuwait or Saudi player who turned out for them in Season 4

If a former player sparks a bidding war, the franchise that nurtured him can step back in at the final price and bring him home. It is loyalty, but at market rate.

Replacements and late curveballs

The auction is only the start. Squads will stay fluid deep into the season.

If a player is injured, called up for international duty, or denied an NOC, he can be replaced at any point up to the end of the league phase of Season 5. Once the tournament support period begins, every replacement needs the green light from the ILT20 Technical Committee.

There is one strict condition. Mandatory category players — from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Afghanistan or Ireland — must be replaced by someone who registered for the auction. For players from other countries, teams have more freedom and can go beyond the original registration pool.

So the stage is set: money ring-fenced, rules sharpened, and a vast field of talent about to be cut down to size. On October 1 in Dubai, the numbers will stop being theoretical and start building squads capable of defining what Season 5 looks like — and who owns it.