Indian Premier League (IPL) Governing Council surprised everyone with a new set of rules and regulations for the 2018 player auction. While the new set of rules almost made certain that MS Dhoni will be Chennai Super Kings (CSK) skipper in IPL 2018, they have made player retention complicated for the franchises. Speculations have already begun around which players will be retained ahead of IPL 2018. And, RTM (Right to match) has caused quite a stir among the franchises.
To make things simple, let’s discuss one rule at a time:
How many players can be retained by a franchise?
This might seem confusing to many. A single franchise can retain up to five players by virtue of a combination of player retention and RTM. A franchise can retain only up to three players before the auction and two by RTM.
What is RTM?
A franchise can also retain a player during the auction by matching the highest bid. For instance, let’s say CSK doesn’t retain Ravichandran Ashwin before the auction and let’s assume the highest bid for Ashwin is by Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) of Rs 2 crores. In this case, if CSK wants Ashwin, they have the right to match the price of the highest bid and retain him.
RTM will make the IPL 2018 auction interesting as franchises will wait for others to finish the bidding and then retain the player.
How many players can be retained and for how many matches?
Retaining players will be a tough and costly job for the franchises. Let’s say a franchise wants to retain three players.
Let’s break it down into two scenarios.
Scenario 1: If CSK retain MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja, then they will have to spend a total of Rs 33 crores. This means they will have to spend Rs 15 crore, Rs 11 crore and Rs 7 crore for these three players respectively.
Scenario 2: If CSK plan to retain only two players, ie Dhoni and Raina, then they will have to spend a total of Rs 12.5 crore and Rs 8.5 crore.
Scenario 3: If a franchise wants to retain just one player then they need to spend Rs. 12.5 crore.
Scenario 4: If a franchise wants to retain an uncapped player then they need to shed just Rs. 3 crore. For example, Mumbai Indians can retain Krunal Pandya for just Rs 3 crore.
What if franchises don’t want to retain players before an auction at all?
Franchises like Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) and Delhi Daredevils (DD) who have not had much success lately and might refrain from spending big bucks before the auction, will get three RTMs in the IPL 2018 player auction. This will help franchises go with a full purse ahead of the auction.
How many capped players, overseas players can a franchise retain?
In a combination of five players, a franchise can retain three capped players and two overseas players. If a franchise retains three capped players ahead of the auction, they can’t practice their RTM in the auction. Same goes for the overseas players too.
What is a capped player, uncapped player?
A capped player is one who has represented Team India in any format of the game, be it T20I, ODI or Tests. For example, Mohammad Siraj, who was an uncapped player in the previous season, will be a capped player this time around. An uncapped player is the opposite of this – who has not played a single T20I, ODI or Tests. For example, Manan Vohra.
What is the maximum and minimum limit for spending in IPL 2018 auction?
As compared to last two years’ salary cap, the purse limit has been increased to Rs 80 crores for this auction. The salary cap will be increased to Rs 82 crore and Rs 85 crore respectively in 2019 and 2020. The minimum amount a franchise has to spend is Rs 60 crore, which is 75 percent of the salary cap.
How many players are allowed in a squad?
A franchise can include as many as 25 players in their squad.
What’s the limit on the number of overseas players?
A franchise can include a maximum of eight overseas players in the squad. This might mean that there will be a competition between overseas players as a maximum of 64 will be getting IPL 2018 contracts.
Which players Rajashtan Royals and Chennai Super Kings are eligible to retain?
Both the teams can retain players who did not get picked in any other team with an exception of Gujarat Lions and Rising Pune Supergiants.
This means CSK & RR can retain players like Dwayne Bravo and Ajinkya Rahane who were in GL & RPS respectively. Whereas they will not be able to retain players like Yusuf Pathan who was in Kolkata Knight Riders or Chris Morris who was in Delhi Daredevils.
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Increase in base price for a capped player:
For capped players, the base price has been increased from Rs 30 lacs to Rs 50 lakhs.
ALSO READ: IPL 2018: Dhoni’s return to CSK confirmed as franchises allowed to retain 5 players
Increase in base price for uncapped players
The base price of uncapped Indian players has been increased from slabs of Rs 10, 20 and 30 lacs to Rs 20, 30 and 40 lacs.
Here’s how IPL auction used to be –
The IPL 2018 player auction is expected to take place in the last week of January 2018.
