IPL PLAYER RETENTION

IPL franchises allowed to retain upto five players

by Cricbuzz Staff • Last updated on

Franchises can play a maximum of three Right to Match options. © BCCI

IPL franchises will be able to retain a maximum of five players through a combination of pre-auction retention and Right To Match (RTM) cards, the governing council of the tournament chaired by Rajiv Shukla resolved on Wednesday (December 6).

The five players secured can include any combination of retention and right-to-match cards with not more than three through either category. That means a franchise not opting to directly retain any player will still be allowed only a maximum of three RTMs at the player auction.

The breakup of the five players retained will have to adhere to the following criterion:

Maximum number of 3 Capped Indian players.

Maximum number of 2 Overseas players.

Maximum number of 2 Uncapped Indian players.

CSK & RR retention pool specified

For Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, the franchises returning to the fold after their two-year suspensions, the GC announced that: "The player pool available for CSK and RR for retention/RTM will be the players' who played for them respectively in IPL 2015 and who were part of RPS and GL squads in IPL 2017."

The likes of Ben Stokes and Jason Roy thus will go back into the auction pool having not played for either CSK or RR in IPL 2015.

Salary Cap hiked

A direct consequence of the increased revenue for the league through title rights sale is a rise in the available salary purse for the eight franchises. Franchises will now be available to spend upto INR 80 crores (up from 66 crores in 2017) with the figure to rise to 82 crores in 2019 and 85 crores in 2020.

The minimum spend will be 75 per cent of the salary cap for each season.

Player retention price guidelines

Retained players will henceforth have a more dynamic effect on the team's salary purse depending on the number of players retained by the franchise. This is a departure from existing price tags, which saw the first retained player receive INR 12.5 crores with subsequent retainees costing the franchise 9.5, 7.5, 5.5 and 4 crores respectively.

- If a team chooses to retain three players, a cumulative of INR 33 crores will be deducted from the base auction purse (15, 11, 7 for the three players respectively)

- If a team chooses to retain two players, INR 21 crores will be deducted (12.5 and 8.5 for the two players respectively) from the purse

- If a team retains just one player, INR 12.5 crore will be deducted from the purse.

- Each uncapped player retained will cost INR 3 crores from the salary purse.

Auction Reserve Price

Uncapped players stand to receive more at the auction with each segment receiving a INR 10 lakh boost. The uncapped players in the lowest category will be valued at INR 20 lakhs, rising up to 30 and 40 lakhs in the two other categories.

For the capped players, the categories at the higher end of the spectrum remain at INR 2 crore, 1.5 crore and 1 crore while the those at the lower end have been plumped up to INR 50 and 75 lakhs (earlier 30 and 50 lakhs).

Squad Size

Franchises will be permitted to have a maximum of 25 players (earlier 27) with a maximum of eight overseas players (earlier nine) in the squad. Each team, however, must have a minimum of 18 players in its roster.

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