Ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season, all teams are set to undergo a major overhaul as mega-auction will take place later this year.

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 grand auction to preserve their core.

Meanwhile, veteran India spinner R Ashwin has expressed his reservations over the RTM rule, saying that it will be unfair to the player as he won’t get value to his demand.

"There is nothing more unfair for a player than RTM. Because how has the RTM rule been so far? For example, there is a player called X. He is on a team called the Sunrisers. There is a player in the SunRisers. His current value is around five to six crores. He went to an auction. SunRisers have to buy the player back. So, the SunRisers will bid for the player at a base price of two crore," Ashwin said while speaking on his YouTube channel.

"KKR and the Mumbai Indians are bidding for the player. The bid is up to six crores. The player was sold to the Mumbai Indians for six crores. So, the SunRisers will bid for the player at six crores. The problem here is that SunRisers are happy. KKR and Mumbai Indians are unhappy. Kumudha is unhappy. The only person happy is SunRisers. Because, for the first time, they gave attendance. After that, there is no fair value at all. There is a bidder," he added.

Commenting further on RTM, Ashwin explained how the other teams involved in the bidding war for a player would be left unhappy and how the concerned cricketer would himself feel hard done by this rule.

"The KKR and Mumbai Indians are fighting. For a team, it has gone up to six crores. What does SRH say? You bought the player, right? Return the player. Like Soori says in Vennila Kabaddi Kuzhu, they are fooling you. We’ll start again. Very unfair. Because, at this time, SRH has to get the fair value of the player. The problem with RTM is that it is not fair value for the player. So, if you give three RTMs, the players will only go empty-handed. Already, there is no fair value in the auction," Ashwin remarked.

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.