The franchise owners are reportedly in favour of having multiple RTMs for the upcoming mega auction.
The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 auction will be a grand one. Usually, when mega-auction takes place in the IPL, the core of a team changes completely.
While there is no clarity yet on the number of retentions each franchise will be allowed, it has been reported that the team owners are in favour of having multiple RTMs for the auction to preserve their core.
Meanwhile, veteran India spinner R Ashwin has raised his voice against the Right to Match option in IPL auctions and suggested a twist to the rule.
RTM used to enable teams to match the highest bid for the player that played for them in the previous season and secure his services again.
“If a franchise has released a player because they don’t see him in their top four or five, then what gives them the right to jump in during an auction,” Ashwin said on Kris Srikkanth's YouTube show Cheeky Cheeka.
The ace spinner wants the BCCI to tweak the RTM rule, as per which, players will get the right to choose whether to re-join the franchise or not.
“You give the option to the player asking if he wants to be right to match. There should be a contract binding the two parties, which says he can be RTMed only if the price is X amount and leave that pre-determined amount to be decided by the player," he added.
It would be interesting to see if the RTM option is given to the IPL teams. In the 2018 mega-auction, a maximum of five players were allowed to retain by each team. Of the five, three players were retained before the auction, while up to three could be bought back by a team through the RTM option in the auction.
During the 2022 mega-auction, when Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants entered the IPL, the eight other teams were allowed to retain four players, but the RTM options were not used since the BCCI wanted GT and LSG to have a larger player pool to choose from.