The new retention rules for the Indian Premier League 2025 mega auction were officially revealed on Saturday, September 28. The BCCI confirmed that the franchises can retain up to six players ahead of the mega auction for the IPL 2025. The Right to Match (RTM) card is back after six years, while the impact player rule will also stay effective for the 2025-2027 cycle.
The teams can directly retain up to six players, use a combination of retention and Right to Match (RTM) or use six RTMS without retention. But they are required to retain a maximum of 2 uncapped players, the remaining capped players can all be the Indian or overseas options. The new rules also allow the teams to have a Rs 120 auction purse, a whopping Rs 20 crore more than the previous edition.
The report also revealed the retention slabs for the five players with the first three getting Rs 18 crore, Rs 14 crore and Rs 11 crore and the next two can be retained for Rs 18 crore and Rs 14 crore. If a franchise retain all five players then they have to churn out Rs 75 crore of their Rs 120 crore purse.
A slab for the uncapped player has been set for Rs 4 crore, which will help the teams secure a talented youngster for a low price. This option will definitely help the five-time champions Chennai Super Kings retain MS Dhoni as the uncapped player as the veteran has not played any international cricket in the last five years.
Meanwhile, to avoid spending Rs 79 crore on 6 retentions, the teams are expected to use RTM cards in the mega auction. The IPL Governing Council is expected to announce the date and venue for the auction event in the coming days.
IPL Governing Council meeting outcome:
- 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 to Indian Players only.
- The Impact Player Regulation will continue for the 2025 to 2027 cycle.
