When the BCCI announced the retention guidelines for the IPL 2025 season, it brought in the uncapped player rule to allow franchises to retain Indian cricketers who haven’t played international cricket for the past five years.
This means CSK will be able to retain MS Dhoni, who retired from international cricket in 2020, for only INR 4 Crore ahead of the mega-auction.
While many believe that the uncapped player rule has been introduced to help CSK sign Dhoni for a lower price slab, IPL chairman Arun Dhumal has rubbished such theories.
In an interaction with Rediff, Dhumal explained why the uncapped player rule is not an exception for the CSK icon.
"When it comes to strategy or planning for a match, there is nobody better than Dhoni. Whether he is uncapped or capped, every franchise would want to pick Dhoni, no matter what price he is available for. I don't think so that this uncapped player is an exception for MS Dhoni," Dhumal said.
He also mentioned names of players like Piyush Chawla and Amit Mishra, who might also benefit from the uncapped player rule.
"It is for all our players because so many young talents who are making it to the Indian team, but there are many senior players who are announcing their retirement from international cricket but they are fit to play. You have someone like Piyush Chawla still playing in the IPL or you have Amit Mishra. They have been out of the Indian team for so many years, but they have done so well in the IPL," Dhumal added.
The IPL chairman made it very clear that the rule is for the players who are fit and have passion for the game even after retirement from international cricket.
"The uncapped player ruling is for all those players who have shown passion for the game and kept themselves fit and firing to play in the IPL," Dhumal concluded.
Talking about the IPL retention rules, each of the 10 teams can retain up to six cricketers, through the retention and Right To Match (RTM) option.
The auction purse for the franchises has been set at INR 120 crore. The first three retentions will see the auction purse being reduced by Rs 18 crore, Rs 14 crore and Rs 11 crore, respectively. However, the two other additional retentions will cost more than the third. The fourth and the fifth retentions will see a reduction of Rs 18 crore and Rs 14 crore, respectively.
It means a team will see its auction purse reduced by a whopping Rs 75 crore on five players, with only Rs 45 crore left in its kitty for the IPL auction.
