The Indian Premier League announced the retentions rules for IPL 2025 and enforced strict guidelines for the players who initially commit but later withdraw from the tournament after auction. After a constructive dialogue with the owners of the 10 franchises in July at the BCCI Headquarters, the Indian Premier League (IPL) Governing Council (GC) met in Bengaluru today to decide the TATA IPL Player Regulations 2025-2027 on Saturday, September 28.
According to the new retention rules, Any player who registers in the player auction, and after getting picked at the auction, makes himself unavailable before the start of the season, will get banned from participating in the tournament and player auction for 2 Seasons.
The following decisions were taken in the IPL Governing Council meeting:
The IPL franchises can retain a total of 6 players from their existing squad. This can be either via retention or by using the Right to Match (RTM) option.
It is at the discretion of the IPL franchise to choose their combination for Retentions and RTMs. The 6 retentions / RTM’s can have a maximum of 5 capped players (Indian & Overseas) and a maximum of 2 uncapped players.
The auction purse for the franchises has been set at INR 120 Crore for IPL 2025. The total salary cap will now consist of auction purse, incremental performance pay and match fees. Previously in 2024, the total salary cap (auction purse + incremental performance pay) was Rs. 110 Crs which will now be Rs. 146 Crs (2025), Rs. 151 Crs (2026) and Rs. 157 Crs (2027).
A match fee has been introduced for the first time in the history of the IPL. Each Playing member (Including the Impact Player) will get a match fee of INR 7.5 Lakhs per match. This will be in addition to his contracted amount.
Any Overseas Player will have to register for the Big Auction. In case the overseas player doesn't register, then he will be ineligible to register in the following year’s player auction.
Any player who registers in the player auction and after getting picked at the auction, makes himself unavailable before the start of the season, will get banned from participating in the tournament and player auction for 2 Seasons.
A capped Indian player will become uncapped, if the player has in the last five calendar years preceding the year in which the relevant Season is held, not played in the starting XI in International Cricket (Test match, ODI, Twenty20 International) or does not have a Central Contract with BCCI. This will be applicable for Indian Players only.
The Impact Player Regulation will continue for the 2025 to 2027 cycle.
(With inputs from press release)