The IPL Governing Council on Saturday announced the IPL retention rules ahead of the upcoming mega auctions. The governing council announced a six-player retention rule, which eventually discourages the teams from retaining all the allowed six players as the price for the fourth and fifth retention is not in descending order.
It has also issued strict rules for overseas players, especially those who make themselves unavailable after being picked at the auctions. According to the rules, "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."
IPL chairman Arun Dhumal has opened up on the much-talked-about rule in an interview to Indian Express. "It has come to our observation that at times players are not making themselves available for bigger auctions but are coming at the smaller auction so that they can get a better value," Dhumal said as quoted by the English website.
He explained that the rationale behind imposing such strict actions was to not put a franchise's strategies in jeopardy. "We wanted to make sure that those who are making themselves available for a big auction are not at the receiving end. In case they are picked at the auction but somehow unable to make themselves available, they will have to give valid reasons. It is not because they are part of the auction, they get picked up for an amount and then they refuse to play. The idea is because the franchise owners and the team are working in detail to make a best team available for the tournament and every player plays an important role in whatever position he has been picked for. In case he is not making himself available, that will put the entire team in jeopardy.
"It is a team game at the end of the day. So the idea is they need to show their 100 percent commitment. If they have said that I would be available then they have to be available. Otherwise, it has to be a medical reason, where the home board should also give in writing that it is a valid medical condition because of which the player is unable to join," he said.
Notably, the IPL has also kept a fee cap of 18 crore or the highest auction price at a mega auction for overseas players. On this Dhumal said, "If a player has been picked up at a higher value vis-a-vis Rs 18 crore per-say, the player gets only Rs 18 crore and the rest of the amount will come back to the league to the BCCI and would be utilised for players welfare. The idea is to make the maximum number of players available at the bigger auction because that is when the franchises can plan a team for three years in advance."
The IPL mega auction is likely to take place in November 2024 and the franchises have reportedly been asked to submit their retentions by October 31.
