Mumbai, Dec 5 (IANS) Maintaining a trend, 1003 players, including 232 overseas cricketers, have signed up for the Indian Premier League (IPL) player auction set to take place in Jaipur on December 18, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced on Wednesday.

Aiming to fill up the available 70 spots are 200 capped players, 800 uncapped and three players from Associate Nations.

Of the 800 uncapped, 746 are Indians. Meanwhile, for the first time in the history of the league, cricketers from nine states -- Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Puducherry -- have registered for the auctions.

Franchises will now have time until 5 p.m. IST on December 10 to submit their shortlisted players, who will make up the final auction list.

--IANS kk/vm