The player auction for the second season of Kerala Cricket League (KCL), organised by the Kerala Cricket Association (KCA), will be held in Thiruvananthapuram on July 5.
Sanju Samson, who represents and captains Rajasthan Royals in the IPL, is expected to be the most sought after player in the T20 league of his home state of Kerala.
Samson was a brand ambassador for the tournament last season but did not play owing to national commitments.
However, the 30-year-old is expected to feature this season with KCA governing council chairman Nazir Machan confirming to Sportstar that Samson will be a part of the upcoming auction for the KCL.
Per Sportstar, the second edition of KCL will be held from August 22 to September 7. It bears noting that KCL’s inaugural season was held in September last year.
The total purse for the franchises has been increased to ₹50 lakh and each franchise can retain up to four players. The franchise can exercise the Right to Match (RTM) card in the auction and the bidding for a player ends once the RTM card is used by a franchise.
There is also a proposal to increase the base prices of players in all categories. The base price of player in category A will be increased from ₹2 lakh to ₹3 lakh while for category B, the price raise will be from ₹1 lakh to ₹2 lakh and for C Category, the base price will go up from ₹50,000 to ₹75,000.
Like in the previous year, noted sports commentator Charu Sharma will be the auctioneer.
A meeting of the franchises and other stakeholders will be held on Thursday where they will be briefed of the new changes, Sportstar further reports.
Samson will be a part of the 39-player Category A pool in the auction, which also includes fellow IPL player Vignesh Puthur and Sachin Baby, who captains the Kerala Ranji Trophy team.
The RR captain had to endure an injury-interrupted IPL 2025 season with the Royals but still managed to score 285 runs in nine games at an average of over 35.
Samson also reached some important milestones this season by becoming the first player to score 4000 runs for Rajasthan Royals in T20 cricket and the IPL.
Samson, who guided Jaipur to the IPL 2022 final, also became Rajasthan Royals’ most successful captain, surpassing the legendary Shane Warne in terms of total wins.
