The IPL owners and the BCCI is reportedly set to meet on July 31 to finalize multiple issues ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction. The IPL 2025 auction is slated for later this year and will see maximum players going back into the auction pool.
However, if the report from Times of India is to be believed then the IPL franchises are set to get a bumper increase in the salary cap to buy players in the auction. The current salary cap is INR 90 Crores and it has been proposed to increase the same to Rs 130-140 crores.
“It has been pending for a while. The salary cap is likely to be increased from Rs 90 crores to Rs 130-140 crores. As per the media rights agreement in 2022, IPL 2025 & 26 will see 84 matches, while IPL 2027 will include 94 matches. It means more matches, with little gaps between them. The players are bound to ask for and expect more money,” the Times of India report read.
The franchises are also set to ask the BCCI to have the mega auction every 5 years increase to every 3 years.
A franchise official told TOI: “In order to ensure continuity, it makes sense to have a player auction every five years, instead of three. A longer gap between mega auctions would help teams get the best out of the players that they have invested in when they were youngsters.
It will enable us, especially those who have academies at the grassroots level, to invest in player development. For example, a young Indian player takes a couple of years to develop, and then after three years, you lose that player suddenly in the mega auction. That’s just not fair.”
Ever since the IPL began in 2008, the mega auction has been held every three years with franchises retaining anywhere from 3-5 players each and the rest of them going into the auction pool.
IPL franchises set to propose a salary increment model in the tournament
Apart from this, the franchises are set to propose a salary increment model for the players to prevent the poaching of players by other franchises.
If the franchisees’ idea is accepted, the wage of a player, bought for say, Rs 30-50 lakh at the IPL super auction in December this year, might be boosted numerous times by the franchise–perhaps even to a few crores–if that player performs outstandingly in IPL 2025.
“The current system doesn’t allow for a player’s salary to be increased by a franchise once he’s bought in the IPL auction. Like most jobs, there’s no provision of increment. Suppose he’s bought for Rs 30 lakh and has an outstanding IPL, the franchise should have the option of offering him, say a Rs 3 crore fresh contract for the next year, rather than lose him to some other team. This will prevent poaching by other teams.
“The IPL needs to allow franchises to renegotiate the salary of a high-performing player. It will allow a team the option to retain its best players of the previous season without the worry that they would ask to be released or traded by other teams. The players would be happy about the handsome increment, while the franchises will be pleased to avoid poaching,” a franchise official told TOI.
The franchise owners have also requested the BCCI to grant each of the teams as many as eight right-to-match (RTM) options, but no retentions.
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