BCCI In Favour of Three Retentions and One Right to Match Card For IPL 2025 Mega Auction: Report

The IPL 2024 was a successful season with some great cricketing action, exciting games and a nail-biting competition. Kolkata Knight Riders were crowned the champions at the end of the season and with it another cycle came to an end. IPL chairman Arun Dhumal previously confirmed that the IPL 2025 will have a mega auction ahead of it and players will be up on the table for bids again. Although it has not been decided yet how many retentions are allowed for each teams ahead of the mega auction and whether there will be any right to match cards in use or not. Ahead of BCCI's meeting with the franchises, there has been a report that BCCI wants three retentions plus one right to match card structure as the way to go forward. BCCI's Meeting With IPL Owners About Mega Auction Retention Criteria and Purse Postponed; Proposals Likely to Involve As Many As Seven RTM Cards.

According to News18, it is understood that the Indian cricket board has not shut the door on the existing 3+1 rule. There are plenty of backers of the existing three retentions and one Right to Match (RTM) card arrangement and not every franchise is in favour of sudden increase in retentions and RTMs. A senior official in a IPL franchise said only handful of franchises can retain 6-8 players but it’s not the case with every franchise. He added that auctions are an important part of the IPL and increasing retentions would make it a useless exercise. “Increasing retentions to say six or eight and then also having RTMs will make auctions a useless exercise. Auctions have added to the beauty of the IPL and giving it lesser importance will not help in keeping the league in good health,” said the veteran team official.

There has been a recent point raised by the franchises that due to the continuous re-shuffling of the players due to the mega auction, it has been difficult for the franchise to get a consistent fanbase. A handful of players like Virat Kohli have played for only one franchise in the history of the IPL. “Yes, that’s a concern for a lot of teams but we can’t compare fan bases in IPL to fan bases of EPL clubs. It’s still too early for that to happen in the IPL. That is why it has happened to only handful of teams in the IPL. It will take time. And if there is desperation to make that happen, get rid of the auction and introduce a draft. Let there be a transfer system. Again, auctions bring a flavour to the IPL,” added the official.

Another senior official of a team which invests a lot in scouting and spends a lot of time in grooming players even when the IPL is not on, batted for increase in retentions and said even the teams which have struggled this season seemed to have identified their core. “Certain teams have not done well this season. Take Punjab Kings for instance, they didn’t qualify but have a solid few players in the mix. Players they scouted and invested their energies in. So even for those teams, increased retentions make sense and help in maintaining continuity,” says official of a team. IPL Winners List: Season-by-Season Champions, Most Title Wins in Indian Premier League After 2024 Edition.

The BCCI top brass was supposed to meet the team owners during the 2024 edition of the IPL to discuss the way forward but the meet was cancelled. The owners haven’t been informed on a new date yet and they are not expecting it to happen during the T20 World Cup. Some teams were told about a possibility of the meeting happening in June but nothing has been decided yet.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 31, 2024 04:34 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).