It is confirmed that the meeting between the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) officials and IPL (Indian Premier League) franchise owners is scheduled to take place on 31st July 2024 (Wednesday). Although the exact venue is yet to be finalized, the ceremony is expected to take place at the Cricket Centre in BCCI’s headquarters within the Wankhede Stadium complex in Mumbai.
Various franchises have given their opinion on how the players should be retained and the RTM (Right To Match) card ahead of the mega auction. In the forthcoming meeting, a common agreement is expected to be reached on these matters. Also, the BCCI might allow every IPL franchise to retain five to six players and the rule regarding the RTM cards will be debated in the meeting.
Several team owners have asked BCCI to allow them to retain eight players before the mega auction. However, the officials weren’t interested due to the reason that 80 key players (including the Indians and foreigners) would miss the auction if each team retained upto 8 cricketers, which could make it a miserable event.
Ahead of the 2022 mega auction, all the franchises were allowed to retain only a few existing players. Considering the effort, each team invests a huge sum of money in developing their player’s talent. Probably, the franchises will be allowed to retain one or two extra players compared to the previous seasons.
RTM Cards: A Highly Debated Topic
In 2022, the BCCI decided not to allow RTM cards since the franchises wanted players to be sold at real market value.
It was in 2018 that BCCI introduced the use of RTM cards, which allowed the franchises to retain a player at the same price sold in the auction. During the mega event, each team had the option to retain upto five players, which included three of them from the event and the remaining two using the RTM card. However, in 2021, the teams couldn’t use RTM cards to bring back their players.
But, during the 2022 auction, teams such as Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants emerged, which resulted in the franchise owners retaining only four players, and the RTM scheme was turned down. Moreover, these two new teams had a chance to select players from a bigger group of available players. This resulted in the other eight existing teams releasing a few of their key players. In other words, the non-availability of RTM cards made it simpler for new franchises to select players and forced the existing teams to lose a few main players.
Furthermore, the main issue behind using RTM cards was that a few franchises intentionally manipulated the prices, which forced the other teams to spend more money than planned to retain their key players. In other terms, several other teams artificially raised the prices knowing that the particular team will get back to retain a certain player.
BCCI officials were dissatisfied with this practice and, therefore, eliminated it. Once again, it remains to be observed whether the RTM cards could be reintroduced in 2024.
IPL CEO sends formal invitation about upcoming meeting
Hemang Amin — the CEO of the Indian Premier League, sent a formal invitation in the form of text messages to the franchise owners on 25th July 2024 (Thursday) morning. He stated that the venue and exact timings of the meeting would be revealed soon. Also, he mentioned that the meeting is expected to take place either in the late afternoon or evening by July 31.
It is understood that all the IPL franchise owners have promised that they will be ready to attend the meeting.
Conclusion
Overall, the exact number of players retained by each team for the upcoming season remains uncertain. According to the previous reports, there might be variations in the inputs from team owners, with suggestions differing between one and eight retentions. Possibly, the BCCI might reach an agreement by fixing an average number of five or six.
Meanwhile, the franchise hopes that the RTM option will be back in the auction and demands that the number of retained players should be eight, to develop a stronger team. The latest reports highlight the fact that the franchises are not satisfied with the mega auctions that are held every three years once and there are fluctuating opinions among teams when it comes to retaining few players. Also, few teams are demanding to retain more than five players.
However, it would become tough for BCCI to unite all the franchises on the same track to decide the retention and RTM rules as the purse is expected to be increased from INR 90 crores to INR 120 crores.
Since there is less than a week left before this meeting commences, the team owners are waiting for the next update related to the upcoming event to enhance their chances of maintaining a perfectly balanced playing XI.