IPL 2018 | Rajasthan Royals question BCCI over mega-auction, retention and pricing

Rajasthan Royals are returning to the Indian Premier League along with Chennai Super Kings (CSK) after serving a two-year ban in the wake of the spot-fixing saga. The surprise winners of the inaugural edition of the IPL are hoping to repeat the fame as they look to build their team from its core - Steven Smith, the only player in the retention auction held earlier.

The Jaipur team are, however, not at all thrilled with the way the auction and the retention process for the 2018 edition of the IPL. According to Mumbai Mirror, the Royals have issued a letter to the team owners and board members of the IPL citing their issues.

co-owner of Rajasthan Royals, Manoj Badale, mentioned in his letter, “Historically, all the capped players have been auctioned first, followed by the uncapped players. This year, however, the first round of capped lots for every position is being followed by the first round of uncapped lots… then the second round of capped lots is followed by second round of uncapped lots and so on…,” a report in Mumbai Mirror stated.

The major concern is said to be around the capped players who will be pushed back in the auction due to this placement. For example, Washington Sundar, who made his India debut recently, is expected to earn big during the auction but has been placed at the 139th spot, a time by which many of the franchisees would have spent a fair share of their money on the other cricketers.

According to the new guidelines, teams had to spend Rs 33 crore-Rs 15 crore for player 1, Rs 11 crore for player 2 and Rs 7 crore for player 3. The teams that retained two cricketers had to pay Rs 12.5 crore and Rs 8.5 crore for player 1 and 2 respectively. The teams that retained only one cricketer before the big IPL auction 2018 had to pay Rs 12.5 crore for retention.

Badale was not impressed by these guidelines either as he pointed it out in the letter, saying “Firstly if you could explain why the retention pricing methodology changed, so that when retaining two players, you pay less for those two than a team retaining three pays for the first two,” he said.

The teams are preparing themselves for fiery mega auctions of the IPL which is slated to be held on January 27, 28 in Bengaluru.