42-Year Old Retired England Star Registers For IPL Mega Auction After Ben Stokes Pulls Out

The wait is finally over as the IPL governing council finally announced the dates for the IPL Mega Auction in 2024. The mega auction will take place on the 24th and 25th of November in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.  

With the IPL mega auction nearing, a total of 1574 players registered for TATA IPL 2025 Player Auction. However, as per reports star England all-rounder Ben Stokes has not registered for the auction as he wants to focus on being fully fit for his duties as England's white ball captain. While Ben Stokes makes himself unavailable for the auction, retired England star cricketer has registered himself for IPL auction. 

Retired England star registers himself for mega auction

As per reports, 42-year old retired English cricket legend James Anderson has registered himself for the IPL 2025 Mega Auction. The report comes after ESPNcricinfo suggested that England skipper Ben Stokes made himself unavailable for the auction given his fitness issues. 

But according to same reports, Anderson who recently retired from international Test cricket back in August is looking to start his franchise career having registered himself for the player auction. 

As per reports, Anderson has set himself a base price of Rs 1.25 Crore in the IPL mega auction. Apart from James Anderson, Indian cricket stars in KL Rahul , Rishabh Pant , Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravichandran Ashwin , Mohammad Shami have all set their base price INR 2 Crore for the IPL auction. 

Top overseas players in Jos Buttler, Mitchell Starc, Glenn Maxwell among others have also registered themselves at INR 2 Crore. 

Also Read | Ben Stokes To Miss Two Consecutive IPL Seasons According To New Rule

James Anderson IPL Career 

The legendary English pacer James Anderson has never played in the IPL and if he is picked at the mega auction then at 42-years he debut in the IPL. 

Interestingly, James Anderson hasn't played a T20 game for a decade with his last T20 match coming back in 2014. 

Also Read | IPL AUCTION: FACTS of Thomas Draca, Italian Player Who Represented MI

In his career, Anderson has only played 44 T20 matches including 19 internationals. He's picked 41 wickets with a strike rate of 22.7 and economy of 8.47 in these 44 games. 

It will be interesting to see if any franchise takes the gamble and picks him in the IPL auction or not.