The Governing Council allows Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals (RR), which was also banned for alleged spot-fixing and betting, to retain the players who were on their 2015 roster.

The Governing Council of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Wednesday cleared the decks for M.S. Dhoni’s return to Chennai Super Kings, which will make a comeback in the 2018 edition after serving a two-year suspension.

The Governing Council, after a meeting in New Delhi, allowed CSK and Rajasthan Royals (RR), which was also banned for alleged spot-fixing and betting, to retain the players who were on their 2015 roster. Dhoni played for the Rising Pune Supergiants (RPS) in the last two editions.

“An IPL Franchise is eligible to secure up to 5 players by virtue of a combination of Player Retention [Pre Player Auction] and Right to Match [RTM] [During the Player Auction],” Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary said in a statement after the meeting.

“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 Gujarat Lions squads in IPL 2017,” he said.

RTM refers to a franchise’s right to match the highest bidder for a player.

The Governing Council also hiked the salary budget of the franchises from Rs. 66 crore to Rs. 80 crore for the next year’s auction, tentatively set for February.

“The minimum spend will be 75 per cent of the salary cap for each season,” the BCCI said.