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Source: CricketAddictor
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On November 24 and 25, the Indian Premier League (IPL 2025) mega auction will be held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. In the meanwhile, India and Australia's first Test match begins in Perth on November 22. The legendary Ricky Ponting has not been pleased with the scheduling conflict, which has made him, Justin Langer, and significant players like Australia's bowling coach Daniel Vettori put their IPL responsibilities ahead of the crucial series opener.
Channel Seven had to make last-minute adjustments to their commentary team because of the IPL auctions, thus former Australia cricketers Ricky Ponting and Justin Langer would depart the India vs. Australia first Test in Perth in the middle of the match. According to The Age, Ponting and Langer have decided to forego their commentary responsibilities for the first Test in favour of the IPL auction.
Ricky Ponting slams BCCI:
Ponting, the head coach of the Punjab Kings, Langer, the coach of the Lucknow Super Giants, and Vettori, the coach of Sunrisers Hyderabad, will miss significant parts of the Perth Test due to the highly anticipated IPL auction. Before departing for Saudi Arabia, Ponting and Langer will only be available for the first day of commentary on Channel Seven.
For PBKS and LSG, respectively, Langer and Ponting must be present at the auction table. Interestingly, both teams will bid for a captain at the auction. Ponting believed that the massive auction would happen in between Test matches. However, it was not to be. According to him, it was the "worst possible case."
Ponting further added, "It’s the worst possible case scenario for me and ‘JL’. We for the last couple of months felt that it was probably going to be in the gap between the Test matches. It takes all the pressure off the players from both teams, there are a lot of players in both teams in the auction. So I always thought it would've been in that gap because it just seemed better for everybody."
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