ILT20 Auction: Babar Azam, Phil Salt, Wanindu Hasaranga among T20 stars lined up for Series 5 auction

The ILT20 Season 5 Player Auction will be held on October 1st. (Photo ILT20) Babar Azam, Phil Salt, Wanindu Hasaranga, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Liam Livingstone, Faf du Plessis and Alzarri Joseph are among the leading player names in the DP World ILT20 Season 5 auction to be held on October 1 in Dubai.Over 200 players from 23 countries have been shortlisted for the auction, which will be held at the ICC Academy Indoors from 1:00 PM GST (2:30 PM IST). Six franchises will use the auction to add to their squads ahead of the 34-game season, which runs from November 21 to December 20.The player pool includes representatives from 11 full ICC member nations, along with cricketers from ILT20 partners Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and 10 other associate member nations.Players were divided into three basic prize categories of $80,000, $40,000 and $10,000.The top group contains several established T20 names including Babar, Salt, Banton, Gurbaz, Hasaranga, Livingstone, Du Plessis, Joseph, Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali, Alex Hales, Naseem Shah, Fazalhaq Farooqi and Chris Woakes.Season 4 featured several players in the top tier, with Salt representing the Abu Dhabi Knight Riders, Banton turning to MI Emirates and Gurbaz playing for the Gulf Giants. Bairstow, Moeen and Hales were also part of the previous season.The $40,000 pool includes Shadab Khan, Ibrahim Zadran, Jayden Seales, Tabraiz Shamsi, Kusal Perera, Gulbadin Naib and Andre Fletcher while the $10,000 pot features players like Will Smeed, Reeza Hendricks, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Ish Mats. Sodhi, George Pottseyt.UAE players could attract a lot of interest

UAE players entered the ILT20 auction at a base price of $10,000.

The auction will also be significant for UAE cricket, with all UAE, Kuwait and Saudi players entering at a base price of US$10,000.According to the Season 5 recruiting rules, none of the players from these three countries could remain with their previous franchises. That leaves several established UAE internationals to choose from, including Muhammad Waseem, Junaid Siddique, Haider Ali, Ayan Afzal Khan, Alishan Sharafa and Khuzaim Tanveer.Each franchise will also have one Right to Match option that can be used on a UAE player who represented the team in Season 4 or appeared for the franchise in the recently concluded ILT20 Development Tournament.The Rules for Playing XI will further increase the importance of the local player base. Each team must field at least two UAE players, two Afghanistan players and one other affiliated player in each match.MI Emirates has the biggest wallet

Information about the ILT20 auction before the fifth season.

MI Emirates will enter the auction with the largest purse of $1.39 million, followed by Abu Dhabi Knight Riders with $1.365 million. The Desert Vipers and Gulf Giants each have $1.305 million, while the Dubai Capitals and Sharjah Warriorz have $1.3 million.Each franchise must finish with 18 to 23 players. Teams must contain at least 11 players from countries with full ICC membership, four players from the United Arab Emirates, one player from Kuwait, one player from Saudi Arabia and at least one other player from an Associate Member.Teams must spend at least $1.5 million and can spend a maximum of $2 million. They will also be allowed one wildcard signing after the auction for a maximum fee of $250,000.The franchises have already signed their pre-auction contracts, with Finn Allen, Jason Holder and Sunil Narine among those secured by Abu Dhabi Knight Riders; Marcus Stoinis and Mustafizur Rahman from Dubai Capitals; and David Miller and Heinrich Klaasen of the Gulf Giants.Defending champions Desert Vipers retained Andries Gouse and Dan Lawrence and added Mujeeb-ur-Rahman and Shimron Hetmyer. MI Emirates retained Nicholas Pooran, Rashid Khan and Romario Shepherd and added Sherfane Rutherford.Sharjah Warriorz have signed Adam Milne, James Vince and Waqar Salamkheil while retaining Sikandar Raza.The Season 5 auction will be streamed on the ILT20 YouTube channel and viewers in India will be able to watch it on Zee5. The tournament will be played at Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi, Dubai International Stadium and Sharjah Cricket Stadium.