IPL franchises bat for player retention
A majority of the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises on Tuesday batted for a retention policy, which will allow them to hold on to their core group of players, during a meeting with the Board officials on Tuesday.
With the auction likely in January 2018, the franchises will have to build their teams from scratch. “A majority of the franchises felt that retention or ‘right to match’ should be given… we will keep that aspect in mind before taking a decision,” said IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla.
Apart from the IPL Governing Council, the two members of the Committee of Administrators, Vinod Rai and Diana Eduljee, were also present at the meeting with franchises.
“A number of issues, including number of players (in each team), salary cap and the total number of (players) teams (can) keep, were discussed, besides the venue and dates for the auction and the inaugural ceremony,” he added.
There was also discussion on whether the two returning franchises — Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals — be allowed to retain their original players. CSK is trying hard to get their former skipper MS Dhoni — around whom their brand was built — back. But, it is learnt that a celebrity team owner spoke against preferential treatment for a franchise.
“I cannot say anything now. Once we take a decision on retention and ‘right to match’ only then can I say something. Once the decision is taken then it will depend on the players and franchises,” said Shukla.
An IPL GC member raised the issue of making the event a 10-team affair, which will allow the two replacement teams — Rising Pune Supergiant and Gujarat Lions — to continue. But it was shot down citing paucity of enough quality players and constraints vis-a-vis the IPL window.
On increasing the salary cap for teams — their share from the central revenue pool (CRP) will increase by almost 300 % — most franchisee owners were not very enthusiastic. The last salary cap was fixed at ~66 crore, and while the BCCI is fine with franchises increasing it substantially so that players benefit, it might not go beyond ~75 crore.
According to an estimate, the CRP could be in excess of ~260 crore from next season owing to a whopping ~16,000 crore the BCCI has made from IPL media rights sale. All these decisions are likely to be taken during the IPL GC meeting to be held in two weeks’ time.
MUMBAI: