Cricket auction purse & safe maximum bid calculator.
Determine exactly how much your franchise can bid on star players without running out of money before completing your mandatory roster.
Total budget each team starts with.
Minimum squad size.
Lowest legal opening bid.
Safe maximum bid
90,000 pts
90% of the purse
- Held in reserve
- 10,000 pts
- Average per slot
- 9,091 pts
A team can bid up to 90,000 pts on one player and still afford the remaining 10 slots at base price.
Figures are in neutral points. Switch to your own currency from the country selector in the header.
The Mathematics of Squad Reserve Protection
Every cricket tournament enforces a Minimum Squad Size (e.g. 11 players for standard T20, 8 for box cricket). If a team finishes the auction with only 9 players because they exhausted their purse on 3 big stars, the tournament schedule suffers forfeit crises.
To prevent this, tournament rules enforce the Reserve Budget Rule. At any point in the auction, a team must hold:
This guarantee prevents franchise bankruptcy and keeps the competitive integrity of the league intact.
Worked Example: Calculating Safe Bid on a ₹100,000 Purse
Suppose your league gives each team a ₹100,000 purse, requires a minimum squad of 11 players, and sets the minimum base price at ₹1,000:
- Total mandatory slots to purchase: 11 players.
- If you bid on Player 1, you still have 10 other slots to buy later.
- The minimum cost to fill those 10 slots is 10 × ₹1,000 = ₹10,000.
- Therefore, the absolute maximum you can bid on Player 1 is ₹100,000 - ₹10,000 = ₹90,000.
If you bid ₹91,000, you would only have ₹9,000 left for 10 slots, making it impossible to sign 10 players at ₹1,000 each.
Purse Calculation Questions
What is the formula for the maximum safe bid in a cricket auction?
Safe Max Bid = Total Team Purse - ((Minimum Required Squad Size - 1) * Minimum Base Price). This ensures a team always retains sufficient funds to buy their remaining mandatory slots at base price.
What happens if an owner bids above their safe maximum bid?
If an owner bids above this amount and wins the player, they will mathematically fail to fulfill their minimum roster quota. Legitimate auction software blocks this bid immediately.
How should teams divide their purse across squad slots?
Tournament data indicates successful franchises dedicate approximately 45% of purse to 2-3 marquee match-winners, 35% to 4-5 core regular starters, and reserve the final 20% for tactical base-price depth.