With the Indian Premier League (IPL) getting bigger year by year, the 2018 edition of the cash-rich tournament will once again witness many players being going under the hammer.
Also fans of franchises such as Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Kolkata Knight Riders shouldn’t be worried about the auctions of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma or Gautam Gambhir as the player retention policy is set to continue for the IPL season 11.
However, a call is yet to be taken on the limit of the players to be retained by each team which will be decided in the franchise owners meeting on November 21.
“The retention policy would be there in all possibility. This is what the majority of franchises want. The only issue we need to thrash out is the number of players who can be retained. We need to work out whether it would be three or five players. For this very purpose, we have called the meeting of franchise owners on November 21 in Mumbai,” a top BCCI official was quoted saying by the Times of India.
Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK), who are all set to make a comeback following a two-year spot-fixing ban, will have the right to retain their old players.
“The first preference would always remain with RR and CSK. The IPL GC had been clear about it from the beginning. But if these players want to go to the auction pool, then these two franchises can’t do anything about it,” he added.
Franchisees can’t go against player’s wishes
“The players would be given the option to decide over continuing with respective franchises or joining the auction pool. It will depend solely on them. Even if a franchise decides to open up its purse for a particular player, it can’t do so against his wishes. If a player has made up his mind to go under the hammer, no one can stop him. He will stay back only if he’s satisfied with the new offer his franchise is making,” he expressed.
