Mumbai, Feb 19 A total of 78 players, both Indian and foreigners, will go under the hammer here tomorrow as cricket enters uncharted waters in an important phase of the multi-million dollar DLF Indian Premier League.

It will be for the first-ever time that international cricketers from around the world will be up for grabs by the eight city-specific franchises who have bought teams by paying a total of USD 723.3 million to the BCCI-floated IPL for taking part in the April 18-June 1 Twenty20 League.

The franchise owners - ranging from top industrialists Mukesh Ambani and Vijay Mallya to Bollywood stars Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta - will bid for several top names in international cricket.

The auction will be a private one to be conducted by an independent professional auctioneer Richard Madley who will be the sole arbiter to all aspects of the auction, the IPL said in a statement ahead of the pioneering effort.

Five iconic players of India - Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag - are not part of the bid process as they have to play for their respective city franchises - Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Mohali and Delhi.

Commenting on the player auction guidelines, IPL chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi said, "The player auction rule is our attempt to make tomorrow's auction a huge success.

"The Governing Council of the DLF Indian Premier League is pulling out all stops to ensure a free, transparent and fair bidding process for a truly historic first ever auction of cricketers in India". (Agencies)