Ahead of the big IPL auction, Rajasthan Royals have hit out at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) over the player retention and the auction process. (Photo: PTI / AFP)

Mumbai: While the Indian Premier League (IPL) teams are gearing up for the big players’ auction, which is going to take place in Bengaluru on January 27 and 28, Rajasthan Royals (RR), who along with Chennai Super Kings (CSK), made a comeback to the tournament after serving a two-year ban in the wake of spot-fixing saga, have hit out at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) over the player retention and the auction process.

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Manoj Badale, a co-owner of RR, has reportedly written an email to the Indian cricket board and IPL managers, complaining about the issues.

"Historically, all the capped players have been auctioned first, followed by the uncapped players. This year, however, the first round of capped lots for every position is being followed by the first round of uncapped lots... then the second round of capped lots is followed by second round of uncapped lots and so on..." a report in Mumbai Mirror said.

While there are not many details, it is reported that the major concern is being the placement of Washington Sundar, who made his India debut recently, in the list of cricketers at the auction. The young Tamil Nadu leg-spinner, who is expected to earn big during the auction, is placed at the 139th spot – a time by which many of the franchisees would have spent a fair share of their money on the other cricketers.

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"The positioning is very flawed," said an official of another IPL side was quoted as saying.

Badale, was also not impressed with the retention procedure, asked why such a method is being followed.

"Firstly if you could explain why the retention pricing methodology changed, so that when retaining two players, you pay less for those two than a team retaining three pays for the first two," Badale said.

The teams, who retained three players, had to shell out Rs. 33 crores – Rs. 15 crore for player 1, Rs. 11 crore for player 2 and Rs. 7 crore for player 3. Although Royal Challengers Bangalore had to play their first-choice retention Virat Kohli Rs. 17 crore, it had to be done because Kohli’s league fee was Rs. 17 crore. The teams that retained two cricketers had to pay Rs. 12.5 crore and Rs. 8.5 crore for player 1 and 2 respectively. So, the teams that retain three cricketers have to pay Rs. 26 crores for two players, exception being the Kohli case, while the teams that retained just two cricketers, pay Rs. 21 crore – 5 crore less – for retaining the cricketers. The teams that retained only one cricketer before the big IPL auction had to pay Rs. 12.5 crore for retention.

RR, who retained the Australian skipper Steve Smith during the pre-auction retention were the only team in addition to Kings XI Punjab, who retained Axar Patel, to just one player before the IPL auction.

"Then could you explain why, once this decided, there is no reduction for the team only retaining one player," concluded Badale.