Photo Credit: Instagram Photo of @iplt20
The IPL governing council has announced a new retention policy for the 2025 mega auction, introducing fresh rules for overseas players to streamline the auction process and ensure player availability. International players must now register for the “Big Auction” before the season to be eligible for the following year’s auction. Failure to do so will make them ineligible, potentially delaying their IPL involvement by a year.
Additionally, stricter penalties have been introduced for players who withdraw after being picked. If a player registers, is selected by a franchise, and later opts out before the season begins, they will face a two-season ban from the IPL, including future auction participation. This measure aims to provide franchises with more reliability and prevent last-minute disruptions due to sudden player unavailability.
These rule changes are designed to balance player flexibility with team requirements, ensuring smoother team-building strategies and preserving the league’s competitive integrity, especially regarding overseas talent. The move follows a trend of foreign players withdrawing before the season in previous editions due to personal or professional reasons.
In a related announcement, the IPL governing council confirmed that teams can retain up to six players for the 2025 mega auction, an increase from the four-player limit during the 2022 auction. Teams can retain players through direct retention or by using the Right-to-Match (RTM) card, which allows them to match the highest bid for a player they had released.
For every unused retention slot from the six-player limit, franchises will receive an additional RTM card, adding strategic flexibility. This change aims to strengthen competition while enabling teams to maintain a stable core group and engage in the auction.
IPL Governing Council announces TATA IPL Player Regulations 2025-27.
Following a constructive dialogue with the owners of the 10 franchises in July at the BCCI Headquarters, the Indian Premier League (IPL) Governing Council (GC) met in Bengaluru today to decide the TATA IPL Player Regulations 2025-2027.
The following decisions were taken in the IPL Governing Council meeting:
- The IPL franchises can retain a total of 6 players from their existing squad. This can be either via retention or by using the Right to Match (RTM) option.
- It is at the discretion of the IPL franchise to choose their combination for Retentions and RTMs. The 6 retentions / RTM’s can have a maximum of 5 capped players (Indian & Overseas) and a maximum of 2 uncapped players.
- The auction purse for the franchises has been set at INR 120 Crore for IPL 2025. The total salary cap will now consist of auction purse, incremental performance pay and match fees. Previously in 2024, the total salary cap (auction purse + incremental performance pay) was Rs. 110 Crs which will now be Rs. 146 Crs (2025), Rs. 151 Crs (2026) and Rs. 157 Crs (2027).
- A match fee has been introduced for the first time in the history of IPL. Each Playing member (Including the Impact Player) will get a match fee of INR 7.5 Lakhs per match. This will be in addition to his contracted amount.
- Any Overseas Player will have to register for the Big Auction. In case the overseas player doesn’t register, then he will be ineligible to register in the following year’s player auction.
- Any player who registers in the player auction and after getting picked at the auction, makes himself unavailable before the start of the season, will get banned from participating in the tournament and player auction for 2 Seasons.
- A capped Indian player will become uncapped, if the player has in the last five calendar years preceding the year in which the relevant Season is held, not played in the starting XI in International Cricket (Test match, ODI, Twenty20 International) or does not have a Central Contract with BCCI. This will be applicable for Indian Players only.
- The Impact Player Regulation will continue for the 2025 to 2027 cycle.
Honorary Secretary
BCCI
Update: 93rd Annual General Meeting of BCCI
The 93rd Annual General Meeting of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was held on September 29th, 2024, in Bengaluru.
The key decisions made are as under:
- The following two representatives were elected to the IPL Governing Council:
- Mr. Arun Singh Dhumal; and
- Mr. Avishek Dalmiya.
- Mr. V. Chamundeswarnath was nominated by the Indian Cricketers Association (ICA) as a player representative and was inducted to the IPL Governing Council at the AGM.
- The audited accounts for FY 2023-24 were passed and adopted by the General Body.
- The Annual Budget of FY 2024-25 was approved by the General Body.
- The recommendations of the IPL Governing Council with respect to the player auction cycle 2025-2027 were approved. This included the provisions of player retentions, right to match, salary cap, etc.
- The members of the General Body appreciated the efforts of the office bearers for the work undertaken with respect to the new National Cricket Academy campus, the Centre of Excellence.
- The members unanimously resolved to maintain BCCI’s legal status as a society. The members further resolved that the tournaments of the BCCI, including IPL, shall not be converted to a company.
JAY SHAH
Honorary Secretary
BCCI
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Name of Author: Cricexec Staff
