IPL 2019 Auction: IPL to have a new auctioneer for the first time in 11 years

The IPL 2019 auction will not have the Wales-based Richard Madley in charge as he will be replaced by Hugh Edmeades - an independent fine art, classic car and charity auctioneer.

The witty comments and lightning fast style of auctioneer Richard Madley has been a huge part of every Indian Premier League (IPL) auction till date. However, this year’s auction will not have the Wales-based Madley in charge as he will be replaced by Hugh Edmeades - an independent fine art, classic car and charity auctioneer.

Richard Madley has been the IPL auctioneer since 2008. (Twitter)

Edmeades possesses a massive experience of over 30 years in this field.The player auction ahead of the 2019 Indian Premier League will be held in Jaipur on December 18. The auction will not be a two-day affair this time around and over 1,000 players, including 232 foreigners, have registered for the 70 spots up for grabs.

Madley was not pleased with the decision and said he was told that it was a part of a change in the auction process.

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“I have been told that the BCCI wants to ‘change up’ the auction with a new venue, new timings and I assumed then that they were going to bring in a newer, younger auctioneer. Perhaps an Indian auctioneer, which would be perfectly logical. Therefore I was surprised when my replacement is a British auctioneer, older than me, more grey hairs, heavier,” Madley told CricketNext.

“He’s a good friend of mine, I’ve known Hugh for many years. But he’s a first class art auctioneer who has no experience of IPL. Therefore, it is illogical to me to replace me with somebody who is almost my mirror image. That, to me, is the one area that hurts,” he added.