IPL auction 2023 live: What is secret bid, how does it work and has it ever been used

The competing franchises are invited to submit secret bids in a sealed envelope, and the highest bidder gets the player. While the player will be paid the amount equivalent to the last matching bid, the additional proceeds will go to the IPL coffers.

Shane Bond and Kieron Pollard were signed by secret bids in the IPL 2010 auction. | Photo Credit: GIRI KVS

In an unlikely scenario when a team exhausts its purse, the IPL authorities have made arrangements of a tie-breaker through secret bids. The competing franchises are invited to submit secret bids in a sealed envelope, and the highest bidder gets the player. While the player will be paid the amount equivalent to the last matching bid, the additional proceeds will go to the IPL coffers.

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So far only three players have been bought via this rule. In the 2010 auction, more than one franchise made the maximum open-auction bid - $750,000 - for Kieron Pollard and Shane Bond. During the tiebreakers, Mumbai secured Pollard while Kolkata Knight Riders signed Bond.

In the 2012 auction, Chennai Super Kings and Deccan Chargers (now Sunrisers Hyderabad) used their entire purse - $2 million - to bid for Ravindra Jadeja, which led to a tiebreaker. Chennai eventually signed Jadeja.