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ToggleThe Indian Premier League (IPL) Governing Council (GC) has finally released the rules and regulations regarding the retention rules of mega auction, where the committee has allowed the franchises to retain up to six players via retentions or RTM. No Limitations are being kept around the number of retained players or the RTM.
The franchises have been allowed to retain a total of six players from the exiting squad, which can be via retention or by using the Right to Match (RTM) card option, as the press release stated. The retained players before the IPL mega auction can have a maximum of five capped players, both Indian and Overseas, and a maximum of two uncapped players.
The first three retentions are going to be INR 18 crore, INR 14 crore, and INR 11 crore, while the remaining two will be INR 18 crore and INR 14 crore, which means that the retained five players will cut a purse of 75 crore from the overall budget of 120 crore.
Uncapped player rule returns for IPL 2025 mega auction
As far as the uncapped player is concerned, the IPL has stuck with INR 4 core, which was the case during the 2021 mega auction. That dissects that a franchise retaining six players (with one uncapped player) will lose INR 79 crore from the purse and go into the auction with just INR 41 crore.
The broader discussion of the uncapped player is that the council has informed the franchises that they are activating the old rule, where a player who had retired from international cricket at least five years before the start of the upcoming season can be addressed as the uncapped player.
“A capped Indian player will become uncapped if he has in the five calendar years preceding the year in which the relevant season is held, not played in the starting XI in international cricket, or does not have a central contract with BCCI. This will be applicable for Indian players only.” The media release stated.
Ahead of the 2022 mega auction, the Chennai Super Kings retained their former captain as the second player for INR 12 crore, and now before 2024, the former Indian leader can be paid INR 4 crore.
Till IPL 2024, a franchise had to ask for the replacement of an injured player before the seventh game (halfway mark) of the edition, which from 2025 will increase up to the 12th game in the league phase.
RTM card returns with a new direction in the auction
The RTM option was previously used in the 2017 mega auction but was discarded ahead of the 2022 mega auction. In this option, the franchise will have the option to buy back a player during the bidding by matching the highest bid for the player once the bidding gets over by another franchise.
Most of the franchises asked to get the rule back. Mumbai Indians, Kolkata Knight Riders, and Sunrisers Hyderabad were reportedly asked for seven to eight RTMs. Mostly, the players have not favored the RTM rule of the IPL.
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To advance the cause, it has been modified to a different aspect. For example, Faf du Plessis goes into the auction and gets the highest bid of 16 crore by Punjab Kings. His existing team RCB, with an RTM card available, uses it to get him back. But because Punjab has got the highest bid for Faf, they will get another chance to bid, and for example, if they go to 20 crore, now the RCB will have the decision to make whether they want to have Faf back or not.
Also, the IPL council has declared that overseas players, who will be bought in the auction and won’t turn up before the season, will be banned for the next two seasons. While, if an overseas player doesn’t register in this auction, then he can’t do the same for the next two years.