IPL mulls over change in retention rule for uncapped players ahead of 2025 auction

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) organised a meeting with the owners of the ten franchises to discuss various points concerning retentions for the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season. In a meeting held on Wednesday, a key question came up, “Should a cricketer, who is retired for five years, be considered at par with an uncapped player at IPL auctions?”

When the suggestion was made at the meeting, more than one franchise had objected, ESPNcricinfo reported on Friday. The report stated that Sunrisers Hyderabad owner Kavya Maran suggested that 'players could be secured via a plain retention process or a combination of retention and RTM at the auction or all exclusively via the right-to-match (RTM) card."

Maran reportedly said it would set a ‘wrong precedent’ if an uncapped player were to be paid more than the former international cricketer – retained as an uncapped player. She also suggested that the player in question be part of the auction, where the market would determine the price.

According to ANI, the IPL 2024 winner Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) asked BCCI that eight players should be bought back exclusively via the RTM method. The co-owner of Delhi Capitals added that he was 'surprised' to see that few franchises were against the mega auction.

The franchises were, however, unanimous in agreeing that Indian players who had not played international cricket for five years should be allowed to lower their base prices at the auction, ESPNcricinfo reported. Currently, ₹50 lakh is the lowest base price set by the IPL for capped India players.

The suggestion reportedly came from the IPL chief operating officer Hemang Amin, who opined a lower base price would give such players a greater chance of getting bought at the auction.

A franchise head said that capped Indians who had not played internationals for several years were being forced to enter the auction at higher base prices and were, therefore, often going unsold despite going under the hammer more than once.

About uncapped player retentions, the IPL franchises were allowed to retain a maximum of two uncapped Indians ahead of 2022 mega auction and the two new teams – Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants – could have one each.

With agency inputs.