Bengaluru. The Governing Council of the IPL on Saturday decided that the 10 franchises will be allowed to retain a maximum of 6 players from their previous team. It will also include a ‘Right to Match’ (RTM) card from the auction. The cost of which will be Rs 75 crore out of the increased team purse of Rs 120 crore. In the last mega auction held in 2022, a team was allowed to retain a maximum of four. The franchise will have to keep a fixed amount of Rs 12.60 crore in addition to the ‘auction cum retention’ amount of Rs 120 crore for the next season.
A senior BCCI and IPL Governing Council member told PTI on condition of anonymity, ‘The cost of first retention will be Rs 18 crore. After that there will be a second retention amount of Rs 14 crore and a third retention amount of Rs 11 crore. However, if a franchisee opts for the fourth and fifth retention, they will again have to pay Rs 18 crore and Rs 14 crore respectively.
He said, ‘Therefore, if any franchise opts for all five retentions, it will have only Rs 45 crore to buy. Or she can even create a team by purchasing another 15 players using her RTM card. There is no limit on Indian and foreign retention. It is understood that most of the strong franchises like Mumbai Indians, Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad were in favor of retaining six to eight players while some other franchises do not have much ‘star power’.
The source said, ‘We have made more cuts to retain four and five players to ensure level playing field. You can retain five players but then you will have less than Rs 50 crore for the auction. Also, if the franchises choose to retain only three players, more ‘star value’ will be added to the auction. BCCI’s plan to make it interesting can be understood from this example.
If Mumbai Indians want to retain Hardik Pandya, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah and Tilak Verma, then Rs 75 crore will be deducted from their ‘purse’ (total amount). Then there will be an amount of Rs 45 crore in the auction and if Ishan Kishan’s price goes up to Rs 15 crore and he will be forced to use the ‘Right to Match’ card. Then it remains only Rs 30 crore to select 14 more players.
It needs to be noted that the retention amount is just a deduction from the team’s ‘purse’ for the auction but it may or may not be the actual salary of the player. This may depend on the separate contract of the player and the franchise.
Impact player rule will continue
In the IPL Governing Council meeting, it was decided to continue the much talked about ‘Impact Player’ rule for the 2025 season. The Impact Sub was introduced during IPL 2023 and since then, opinions have been divided on this rule as it reduced the importance of all-rounders. Even in the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) meeting with team owners in July, some franchises like Delhi Capitals were completely in favor of retaining the ‘Impact Player’ rule. We did not feel the need to remove the impact player rule as it adds a new dimension to the game and gives teams something to think about. It’s also very exciting for the fans.
Tags: IPL, IPL Auction
FIRST PUBLISHED: September 28, 2024, 23:51 IST