IPL Auction: Team purse may be raised to Rs 125 crore; 6 retentions likely

There could be a consensus about increasing the team purse up to Rs 120 crore and allowing retaining up to six players, including 'Right To Match' (RTM) options, during the IPL's Governing Council's meeting with the owners of all 10 franchises in Mumbai on Wednesday.

With a big auction for IPL 2025 scheduled at the end of this year, the modalities need to be set in order and five points will be on the agenda of the BCCI-team owners meeting where divergent views could emerge on some of the points.

While BCCI won't announce the rules and regulations on team building, the inputs from the owners will be taken into account.

PTI spoke to multiple franchises and there was one aspect where everyone agreed that the current team purse of Rs 100 crore needs to be increased by at least 20 to 25 percent.

"I think that (increase of purse) is happening for sure. The standard increase should be anywhere between 20 to 25 percent and hence anything in the range of Rs 120 crore to 125 crore will be a fair deal. Most franchises would agree to it," a senior official of one of the IPL franchises said.

However, the bigger issue is the player retention where it could be difficult to reach a common ground as most teams have different requirements.

While one powerful franchise seemed to have suggested as many as eight retentions, including RTMs,

it is unlikely others will agree to it.

Currently, IPL allows four retention per year with three being Indians and one overseas. It is believed that most teams want retention to be between five to six.

"Obviously, continuity and maintaining a core is very important going forward. May be allow six (retentions) including a couple of RTM cards with at least one uncapped player being kept in the mix. But there could be some debate over the number of overseas retentions.

"There are teams like Delhi Capitals (Jake Fraser-McGurk and Tristan Stubbs) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (Pat Cummins, Heinrich Klaasen and Travis Head), who would want more than one overseas retention," an IPL source added.

The other bone of contention could be the 'Impact Player' rule and while India's T20 World Cup winning skipper Rohit Sharma and star batter Virat Kohli have both spoken openly about how it can affect the development of all-rounders, none of the franchises would mind a contest where 12 players will be available.

They are in the business of cricket and it is possibly BCCI's duty to protect all-rounders, who are becoming rare because of this rule.

But then the counter argument by a franchise like Chennai Super Kings could be that the 'Impact Player' rule would allow their talisman Mahendra Singh Dhoni to continue for one more year.

If Impact Player rule is gone, Dhoni, who nowadays comes in at No. 8 can't afford to do that and also have Shivam Dube in the playing XI without utilising his bowling which is cannon fodder for the batters.

There will also be discussions on IPL Gaming Rights and revenue sharing from IPL's Central Merchandising pool.