The IPL Governing Council has all but finalised the number of player retentions per team ahead of the mega auction. According to a report in news agency PTI, the IPL GC has agreed on allowing five retentions per franchise, albeit with a twist. The report make a big claim that if a franchise decides to make five retentions, they should have to shell out Rs 75 crore from its overall purse, which could go up to Rs 115-120 crore, as compared to Rs 90 crore from the previous mega auction in 2022.

Earlier it was reported that a franchise will be allowed to retain five players as well as a right-to-match card. However, the new report added that if a franchise makes just three retentions, it will be allowed to use three RTM cards. The report made another claim that there is no cap on Indian or Overseas retentions.

“The first retention will cost Rs 18 crore followed by second retention of Rs 14 crore and third retention of Rs 11 crore. However if a franchise opts for fourth and fifth retentions, they will again have to pay Rs 18 crore and Rs 14 crore respectively. So any franchise opts for all five retentions, then will have only Rs 45 crore to buy or even use their Right To Match (RTM) card to buy another 15 players and prepare a squad. There is no cap on Indian and Overseas retentions,” a senior BCCI and IPL governing council member told PTI on conditions of anonymity.

It is understood that most of the stronger franchises like Mumbai Indians, Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad were in favour of six to eight retentions as opposed to likes of some other franchises which don’t have too much star power.

“We introduced more deductions for retentions four and five to ensure level playing field. You can go ahead and retain five but then you will have less than Rs 50 crore to deal with at auction table. Also if franchises opt for only three retentions, then more star value will be added to auction,” the source said.

An example can be furnished how BCCI planned to make it interesting.

Therefore if Mumbai Indians want to retain Hardik Pandya, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah and Thilak Varma, they will have Rs 75 crore deducted from its purse. And then with Rs 45 crore at auctions, what happens if Ishan Kishan’s price skyrockets to Rs 15 crore and they are forced to use a Right To Match card. Then it effectively boils down to Rs 30 crore to select 14 more players.

One needs to note that retention price is only a deduction from the team purse for the auction but it may or may not be the actual salary of the player which is a player-franchise separate contract.

(With PTI Inputs)