Unusually, the IPL’s latest auction, at a JW Marriott property on NH 11, on Tuesday, will be minus the chairman (Rajeev Shukla for the past many years) and, indeed, the governing council which had Sourav Ganguly among its members.

That’s because almost all committees of the Board of Control for Cricket in India have been disbanded by the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators.

The IPL governing council was regarded as a committee of the Board.

So, who will give the inaugural address ahead of the auction? That question kept being asked till late on Monday.

Will it be Administrator Diana Edulji or acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary or Board CEO Rahul Johri, who is chief Administrator Vinod Rai’s No.1 lieutenant?

“Ideally, Amitabh should deliver the address, but Rai may authorise Johri to do so. It could be an interesting afternoon,” a well-placed source told The Telegraph at the venue of the auction.

In the prevailing circumstances, “interesting” has to be interpreted as fireworks.

All three office-bearers of the Board — acting president Chandra Kishore Khanna, Amitabh and treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry — are in Jaipur.

Rai stays away from IPL auctions, but Diana has reached.

Apparently, Amitabh and Anirudh have already come face to face with Johri, who was recently the focus of an inquiry following allegations of sexual harassment. Diana was expected to come across the CEO at the customary pre-auction briefing.

Diana, Amitabh and Anirudh have all been on one page: That Johri ought to have been removed/made to resign immediately after the first allegation surfaced, on October 12.

All three, it seems, have a pronounced dislike for Johri. The latter may, of course, have the same feelings.

Johri did get a 2-1 verdict in his favour from the committee inquiring into the allegations, but the manner in which the inquiry was conducted actually left much to be desired and encouraged questions which remain unanswered.

Bottom line is that Johri has the unconditional backing of Rai, who is calling the shots in the Board, even if he so obviously lacks the expertise.

So, on auction day, considerable attention will be on Johri and probably not that much on the players.

With no governing council and no chairman, another question being asked is the logic behind scheduling the auction before the national T20 tournament, the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

Hasn’t this hurt players who could have improved their stock and/or closed the doors on some rookie who may have caught the attention of the franchises?

Meanwhile, England’s ODI and T20I captain Eoin Morgan is a late entrant to the auction, with a handsome base price of Rs 2 crore.

The availability factor could come into play, otherwise Morgan has to be regarded as potentially a very good buy.

With the number of players going up, 351 will now be under the hammer. The list includes Yuvraj Singh and Brendon McCullum.

In order to attract higher TV viewership, the auction begins at 3.30 pm, after the second Test, in Australia, gets over in Perth.

Auctioneer Richard Madley will be missed as he has been replaced by Hugh Edmeades.