The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is considering a significant change to its player retention policy ahead of the mega-auction for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season.
A special provision to retain uncapped players is being explored so that teams don’t lose the services of rising talents after grooming them.
Almost all the franchises have invested in some young cricketers over the years and they could be allowed to retain at least two uncapped players.
According a report published in Times of India, the BCCI might permit the IPL franchises to retain uncapped players under a separate slot
"Every franchise could be allowed to retain, say, two to three uncapped players from their squad in the 2024 IPL season under an additional slot. The franchises are likely to push for it. Almost all the franchises have developed certain uncapped players which they don't want to lose since they have invested in them over the last two three years," a source was quoted as saying by TOI.
Several uncapped stars became household names during the IPL 2024 season. Players like Nitish Reddy, Mayank Yadav, Ashutosh Sharma, Shashank Singh, Sameer Rizvi, Naman Dhir among others impressed one and all with their exploits, and their respective franchises would not prefer to lose them now.
The source also confirmed that the main agenda will be the number of retentions during the meeting between the BCCI and the IPL franchises in Mumbai on Wednesday (July 31).
"A major time of the meeting is likely to be consumed in discussing retentions, which are likely to be not more than five or six in number, more time (five years from three) in the frequency of the mega auction, an increase in purse and performance-based increments for a player," a source told TOI.
Earlier, it was reported that the auction purse could be increased from INR 90 crore to INR 130-140 crore.
It would be interesting to see if the RTM option is given to the IPL teams. 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.
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.
(With TOI Inputs)
