While we all know that the Indian Premier League has captured the mindshare of every cricket fan, one event that captures the interest of all is the auction which precedes the tournament.

The mini auction happens every year which allows to have an open window transfer and purchase players on a limited capacity with the balance auction money in their kitty.

While the mini-auction is for a limited number of players, we will witness the mega auction for the 2025 season this time.

In the past, the mega auction only allowed a limited number of Indian and overseas players, while the rest of their squad was put back in the auction pool for other franchises to bid for the player if they wished to.

The contentious ‘Right to match’ (RTM) card is and was the biggest talking point in auctions in the past wherein after a hard-fought bidding war by rival franchise teams, and after one franchise outbids the other franchise, the player still is not sold as the original franchise of the player uses their ‘Right to match’ (RTM) card and retains the player in their team.

Please note the new franchise does not have a chance to counterbid the ‘Right to match’ (RTM) card.

The Mega Auction has always had its share of controversies with successful franchises not very happy with the mega auction having to let go of players they invested in over the years.

Though controversial, the mega auction was to bring parity, with the new franchise having equal opportunity to build an equally strong team similar to the old franchisees. This was evident with the new Franchise Gujarat Titans, winning the title in their debut season and coming to the finals in the following year.

Auction is a very strategic and well thought out process and eventually decides the balance of the team.

Unfortunately, the announcement of the player retention rule for the upcoming season has seen considerable delay and all eyes are on the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)

The expected announcement has been delayed from August to the end of September considering the upcoming BCCI’s Annual General Meeting. With this delay, there has been a lot of social media activity triggering speculations and unwanted gossips around the Mega Auction.

BCCI too has been in two minds on lot of contentious and critical aspects on the player retention policy for IPL mega auction.

The 2025 IPL season mega auction was expected to be continued in a similar structure as was the case in the previous mega auction.

Some points expected and discussed amongst stakeholders have been (Not agreed yet)

• IPL franchises to retain five to seven players.
• Some radical suggestion of not having any retention thus building up a team from scratch.
• The most contentious of the lot was to classify retired international players as uncapped to bring down the pressure on the auction purse. This raised a few eyebrows as such a change will directly give advantage to Chennai Super Kings with veteran MS Dhoni in their team.

BCCI is clearly on the back foot as they do not want to ruffle any feather in the CSK camp. At the same time, such a change would drastically affect team strategies and unfair advantage to a certain team and their auction purse.

MS Dhoni has retired from international cricket for more than five years now and as per the CSK camp, deserves to now be qualified under the uncapped status

A decision that will give an unfair advantage to one particular team could become a bone of contention and may lead to how future retention strategies are taken by the stakeholders.

BCCI cautious approach

IPL is not just a T20 tournament but a huge brand that needs to be carefully operated with its rules and changes made in the tournament.

BCCI wants to ensure that fairness prevails in the auction and that the competitiveness of the tournament is at its peak at all times.

Franchise owners are constantly in touch with the BCCI and have expressed and opined on this topic.

They are trying to convince BCCI for Franchise to be able to retain their core in the squad which does not drastically change the composition of their team.

SuperSports 360 View  

The Reintroduction to the Right to Match (RTM) may again put the cat amongst the pigeons. We at SuperSports believe that if the Right to Match (RTM) has to be executed, the highest bidder should be able to continue his bidding when the Right to Match (RTM) card is executed and if required the bidding should be continued till one franchise outbids for the player.

The Right to Match (RTM) and the Retention policy in its current terms are contradictory to BCCI’s attempt to be fair and provide equal opportunity to all franchises.

While the cricket communities and fans are eagerly waiting for a BCCI announcement, any further delay will only fuel more speculation and confusion in the auction process.

The delay will also have a significant effect on team planning

The Uncertainty is not helping Brand IPL and Franchise involvement should be kept to a minimum. Let the administrators run the show and not be influenced by outside forces.