BCCI has finally announced the new rules for the IPL 2025 Auction and this time it seems that the people responsible have burned the midnight oil to close some glaring gaps from the previous IPL auction rules

Some highlights of the new rules

• Right to Match (RTM) option has been reintroduced
  • Franchises to match the highest bid for a player who represented them in the previous season
  • As per reports MI, SRH, and KKR Franchise are learnt to have pushed the BCCI for 7-8 RTMs during the auction.

• Maximum 6 players can be retained
  • 5 capped players plus 1 uncapped player
  • Each franchise can retain a maximum of six players via a combination of retention and the RTM option.
  • a maximum of two uncapped (Indians) players can be included in the allotted maximum of 6 players.

• Change in uncapped player condition
  • The BCCI has made a major change by bringing back the uncapped player rule, where international players who have not had a BCCI contract in the last few years can be retained under the uncapped player category.

• Franchise purse
  • Franchise purse has increased from 100 crores to 120 crs.
• Stricter registration rules
  • Foreign players are now mandated to register themselves in the mega auction to be eligible for mini auction if they go unsold.
  • If a player is bought in the mega auction but backs out of the tournament, the player will be banned for 2 seasons of the IPL.

• Retention Amount
  • 18 crores – 1^st retention
  • 14 crores – 2^nd retention
  • 11 crores – 3^rd retention
  • 18 crores – 4^th retention
  • 14 crores – 5^th retention
    • Uncapped player amount is capped at 4 crs. (Only if it is the 5^th or 6^th retention else the cost will be aligned according to the retention slot)

Total Franchise cost to retain 6 players – INR 75 crs. (capped) + 4 crs. (uncapped)

If a franchise chooses to utilise all the retaining options, then for five capped players and one uncapped player, the franchise will exhaust INR 79 crs. from the overall purse of INR 120 crs. This leaves the franchise with only INR 41 crs. to fill in the rest of the squad.

It is a catch-22 situation.

If a franchise retains four capped and two uncapped players, it will still lose INR 69 crore from the overall purse.

• Overseas Player retention cap
  • There is no restriction on the number of overseas players that can be retained, meaning all five capped players could be from overseas.

• The Impact Player rule
  • will remain in place till the 2027 season.

The IPL believes the rule has kept all matches competitive and high-scoring.

• Injury replacements
  • An injured player can be replaced till the 12^th match in the league phase compared to the earlier 7-match rule.

• Match Fees
  • IPL players set to get INR 7.5 lakh per match; sum exclusive of the contracted amount

Great Move in RTM

However, the rule has been slightly changed this year to give the highest bidder one more chance to change their bid for a player before the team holding the RTM card can exercise their bid.

This point was suggested by our team in our previous article:

Why is the IPL Player Retention Rule Getting delayed?

But there is a catch!! (SuperSports View )

The new rule says that if a RTM card is used, the bidding team has an option to increase their maximum bid. The Team holding the RTM card can then use the RTM option and choose to acquire the player at the increased bid or opt-out.

The catch:

Here the bidding team will have no chance of having a bidding war with the team holding the RTM card. Only a single choice of increasing their auction bid.

This still seems to be unfair, but the new rule is far better than the earlier RTM rule.

Suggestion from SuperSportsTeam

Before the auction begins, the franchise should give a list of players (maybe 3-4) where RTM may be used.

This will help other franchise to plan their auction more effectively.

The Unfair rule to bring MS Dhoni in the uncapped category

As mentioned in our previous article, the pressure was mounting on the IPL council to relook at redefining the uncapped player rule to accommodate MS Dhoni in the ‘Uncapped’ category as MSD has retired from international cricket for more than 5 years.

Finally, BCCI has bowed down to the pressure to make changes in the uncapped category. Now MS Dhoni can be retained by CSK at INR 4 crs. MSD was retained for INR12 crs. crores in 2024 auction.

This rule was earlier scrapped in 2021 only to be brought back in 2025 auction.

The IPL 2025 mega auction, is likely to be scheduled for the third or fourth week of November.

Though it is extremely unlikely to see all 10 franchises retain 6 players before the auction, some well-established teams may still consider this option.

Likely Retention Team Wise 

Chennai Super Kings:

Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ravindra Jadeja, Shivam Dube, Mahesh Theekshana, Matheesha Pathirana, MS Dhoni*

Mumbai Indians:

Hardik Pandya, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru:

Virat Kohli, Mohammed Siraj, Will Jacks, Glenn Maxwell, Cameron Green, Yash Dayal*.

Rajasthan Royals:

Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Trent Boult, Yuzvendra Chahal.

Kolkata Knight Riders:

Shreyas Iyer, Rinku Singh, Phil Salt, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Harshit Rana*.

Gujarat Titans:

Shubman Gill, Rashid Khan, David Miller, Sai Sudharsan, Mohammed Shami.

Lucknow Super Giants:

KL Rahul, Quinton de Kock, Nicholas Pooran, Ravi Bishnoi, Marcus Stoinis, Mayank Yadav*.

Delhi Capitals:

Rishabh Pant, Mitchell Marsh, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Axar Patel, Abishek Porel*.

Punjab Kings:

Sam Curran, Arshdeep Singh, Kagiso Rabada, Ashutosh Sharma*.

Sunrisers Hyderabad:

Pat Cummins, Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Heinrich Klaasen, Nitish Kumar Reddy*

The status of these uncapped players can change before October 31.

According to the BCCI’s regulations, if a player makes their international debut after November 01, he would still go into the IPL 2025 season as an uncapped player.