Royal Challengers Bangalore In Dilemma Over Retaining Virat Kohli

As the year 2017 is approaching the end, heat and the buzz is rising over the much-awaited mega auction for the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League where Virat Kohli might not be retained. Following a lot of speculations over the player retention policy, the IPL governing council gave all the eight franchises the choice to retain five of their elite players from their previous squads with two options – retain three cricketers with two Right to Match (RTM) or retain two cricketers with three RTM.

The salary purse for IPL teams has also been extended to Rs. 80 crore this season, that could see the franchises splashing a lot of money to build a strong team. The teams are required to submit their respective lists of five players per teams by January 4 — three weeks ahead of the IPL 2018 auction on January 27 and 28. As the auction day is nearing, rumours have also started doing the rounds over the players’ retention and one of the biggest of them has been reported by Ahmedabad Mirror.

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The news outlet has claimed that teams such as Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) face a big dilemma to retain their top players such as the likes of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers due to the change in the IPL retention policy manual released by BCCI. The manual states: “The deduction from salary purse in case of retention will be determined on the basis of guideline price or actual price (whichever is higher).”

While releasing Kohli will not be easy for the franchise given the player’s stature, but the Bangalore-based franchise will have to cough up a good fortune to keep the India skipper with the side. The report claimed that Kohli’s retention value has to match his high stature. If a team were to retain one or two players, the guideline price for the top player is Rs 12.5.

As per guidelines, if a team opted to retain three players, 33 crores would be deducted from the salary cap of 80 crores according to the basic guideline price. If the franchise opted to keep two or just a single player, a total of Rs 21 crore or 12 crores would be subtracted respectively. However, the top players can now negotiate above the default guideline price in case they are not satisfied with their price tag. As a result, the players could go on to secure a deal worth as much as Rs 15 crore. If the franchise does not bow down to the player’s demands, then he can make go under the hammer in a bid to secure a lucrative deal.

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Despite paying Kohli Rs 15 crores previously, only 12 crores was deducted from the team’s purse. However, the new policy will see teams pay the highest amount from the guideline or actual price, meaning more money spent on retention. As a result, if the Bangalore-based outfit decides to retain three players, the amount cut from the Rs 80 crore salary cap could be more than 50 percent of the available fund.

Now in case, the franchise decides to retain all the three players by shelling out close to half of their budget, it will find it extremely tough to build a solid squad with the remaining squad.

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