As the IPL 2025 mega auction is approaching, players across the world have started to register for the world’s grandest league. So far, 1574 international players have registered themselves in the IPL 2025 auction scheduled from 24 to 25 November in Jeddah. But despite IPL’s craze among the cricketers, there is a player who decided not to take part in the world’s richest cricket league, and this player is England’s test skipper Ben Stokes.
According to a recent report by ESPNcricinfo, Ben Stokes has decided not to register himself for the upcoming mega auction for the 2025 IPL season. According to this report, Ben Stokes gave a reason for workload management for not taking part in the mega auction.
He said that he wanted to focus on playing for England, especially in Test matches where he is the skipper of the squad, and to do so he has to be fit and not push his body to extreme levels.
This decision of Ben Stokes not to take part in the 2025 IPL mega auction is a huge call considering the situation that he wouldn’t be able to take part in the IPL until 2027 because of the new IPL Rules.
The rule says that “Any Overseas Player will have to register for the Big Auction. In case the overseas player doesn’t register, then he will be ineligible to register in the following year’s player auction.”
Considering this decision of Ben Stokes can be career-defining as far as the IPL is concerned because Stokes is already 33 years old. If he stays with his decision, he will not be able to play in the IPL until he is 36, and at time, teams may not give him the salary that Stokes was getting in his early 30s in 2023 or 2024.
However, this is just a speculation that could be wrong, as we have seen players like Faf Du Plessis and Adam Gilchrist who wreaked havoc in the IPL in their late 30s.
Also Read: LSG Retained Players List for IPL 2025
