The eight franchises in the Indian Premier League are likely to be allowed to retain a maximum of 4 players ahead of the mega auction for the IPL 2022. On the other hand, the two new franchises will be allowed to pick three players each from the rest of the cricketers in the pool before the auction.
While there is no confirmed date for the auction, the purse is likely to be Rs 90 crore (US$12 million approx.), which is slightly more than the Rs 85 crore that was available in the 2021 auction. The two new franchises are- RPSG Ventures Ltd. - Lucknow (for INR 7,090 crores) and Irelia Company Pte Ltd (CVC Capital Partners) - Ahmedabad (for INR 5,625 crores).
ESPNCricinfo reported that these were amongst the things discussed between the IPL franchises and the BCCI this week. As for the three players going to the two new franchises - Lucknow and Ahmedabad - the IPL has specified a combination of two Indian players and one overseas.
There are two different combinations teams can apply while picking their four players to retain: three Indians and one overseas, or two Indians and two overseas. The three Indians retained by franchises can all be capped, all uncapped or a mix of both.
However, there will not be any RTM cards available in the IPL 2022 auction. It also remains unclear whether the two new teams will be allowed to pick players from the lot that was not retained by the eight teams, or from the larger auction pool, which may have new players in the mix.
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With regards to retentions, the final choice will remain with the player: does he want to be retained or does he want to go back into the auction pool. While the IPL is yet to announce the details and rules, the deadline for retaining players is likely to be the end of November.
The IPL is still firm on some key elements of the auction with regards to the maximum amount that can be spent on each retained player and the percentage of the auction purse each franchise can spend overall on retaining players.
The significance of player retention is increased by the fact that BCCI will soon begin the process to finalize the IPL media rights for the next cycle beginning from the 2023 season. Therefore, which player plays for which team can make or break a franchise’s fan base.
And there is the possibility of some big names, such as David Warner and KL Rahul, being up for grabs this time. Also, there is no certainty on the future of MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli as well, despite Dhoni winning the 4th IPL title for CSK recently, and Kohli stepping down from RCB captaincy after the IPL 2021.
However, CSK owner N Srinivasan said there would be "no CSK without Dhoni and no Dhoni without CSK", strongly hinting at the franchise retaining him. Similarly, Kohli had said in his announcement that though he’s stepping down as captain, he would like to play for RCB until he plays in the IPL.
(ESPNCricinfo inputs)
