The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Wednesday, July 31 hosted a meeting at their headquarters in Mumbai with the ten Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises to discuss some crucial topics, which included player retentions, Impact Player rule, foreign players’ availability, Right to Match and several others.
However, as of writing, there haven’t been a concrete outcome of the meeting, but it definitely saw the franchises share their differentiated opinions of the above-mentioned topics. According to a report published by Cricbuzz, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) co-owner Shah Rukh Khan engaged in a heated argument with Punjab Kings (PBKS) co-owner Ness Wadia over player retention discussion. The two were divided with the KKR co-owner eyeing for maximum numbers of retentions, while PBKS co-owner was against the idea.
While player retentions have been a key topic of discussion since the time BCCI announced of holding a mega auction later this year. The report further added that the Indian cricket board will have to now decide whether to hold a mega auction. “A consensus on the mega auction - whether to have it or not - will eventually determine the number of retentions. If the BCCI decide to do away with the mega auctions, there may not be a requirement for retentions at all,” it further read.
BCCI eyeing 5-6 player retentions; team purse to be increased to INR 120-125 Cr: Reports
It is to be noted that since the inception of IPL, teams have been forced into major overhaul every three seasons. Teams saw major changes, including the release of some key players in 2011, 2014, 2018 and 2022. Furthermore, in the last two cycles, the gap was increased to four years.
As per the recent reports, franchises are set to retain around five to six players with the return of the Right to Match (RTM) card. Moreover, if reports are to be believed, Impact Player rule is set to continue in the IPL 2025 while the BCCI is also mulling to increase the team purse to INR 120-125 Crore.