Credit: X
Right to Match card, referred to as RTM, allows the franchise to buy an unretained player who played for them in the previous edition for the highest bidding amount the player has received in that auction.
The RTM option is available only during the IPL mega auctions since during these auctions, teams can retain only a smaller number of players with restrictions. Hence this rule isn't valid for the upcoming IPL 2024 auction which is set to happen as a mini-auction. The last time the RTM was used was during the IPL 2018 mega auction.
During the 2018 IPL mega auction, a team could retain a total of five players from the previous edition. But if they retained only four players, then they got one RTM card, and if they retained only three players, they got two RTM cards and a maximum a team can avail was three RTM cards if they retained only two players ahead of this mega auction.
For instance, Shikhar Dhawan registered himself in the IPL 2018 auction for a base price of 2 crores and was bid by PBKS for INR 2 crores. RR came into the race and fought in the bidding war for him for INR 4 crore later MI fought for him till INR 5 crore, and finally, was sold to PBKS for INR 5.2 crore.
Dhawan, after being sold to Punjab for 5.2 crores, got back to the Hyderabad franchise using the RTM card since he played for SRH in the 2017 IPL.
Many players like Kieron Pollard, Faf du Plessis, Ajinkya Rahane, Dwayne Bravo, David Miller, Marcus Stoinis and more were bought by the respective franchises by RTM card in the IPL 2018 auctions after they gold sold to another team.
Follow: IPL 2024 Auction Live Updates
