New IPL player retention rule declared by the governing council

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is the most prestigious domestic tournament in India, and the craze for the same in the country is unparalleled. The franchises, every year gear up for the elite tournament by strengthening their squad during the auction and a lot of strategies and hard work goes behind it. The tournament every year reaches the levels promised but one event which is as entertaining as the tournament is the player auction.

People eagerly wait for the auction day as the swapping and retaining of players is a thing which everyone remains curious about. There has been an issue going on for quite some time now about the retention policy of the players, and a lot of meetings have been held despite which franchises and the supreme court-appointed committee of administrators could not come to a solution.

But at least the governing council of the tournament has been able to decide that the Indian Premier League Franchises will be able to retain a maximum of five players through a combination of pre-auction retention and right to match (RTM) cards. The five players secured can be any combination of retention and right to match cards with not more than three in either category. According to the rule if a franchise opts not to retain any player before the player auction, then the franchise will have three right to match cards during the auction.

Franchise can have a maximum of either 3 retentions or 3 RTM.
If they chose to retain 3 players before the auction, the franchise can then use two RTM options.
If there is no retention before player auction then franchises can have up to 3 RTM during the auction. (2/n)

— Cricbuzz (@cricbuzz) December 6, 2017

Also, the team’s salary caps for the next three years were announced by the governing council. For 2018 it is a whopping 80 crore whereas for 2019 and 2020 it is 82 and 85 crores respectively.

Teams' salary caps for the next three years:
2018 – INR 80 Crore
2019 – INR 82 Crore
2020 – INR 85 Crore

— Cricbuzz (@cricbuzz) December 6, 2017

This year IPL would be marked by the return of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals after serving a long-term ban. The player pool available for CSK and RR for retention/RTM will be the players’ who played for them respectively in IPL 2015 and who were part of RPS and GL squads in IPL 2017.