IPL 2018 | BCCI yet to take final decision on IPL retention policy
The BCCI officials have failed to reach a final decision on player retention for the 2018 edition of the Indian Premier League in the board meeting. The IPL governing council (GC) had proposed the retention of three players with a maximum of two Indians in next year’s mega auction.
The next season of the IPL will be a grand one with a mega auction ahead of the tournament and fans may get to see some big players signing up for new teams. Earlier, the IPL governing council decided to give the franchises a chance to retain three of their key players with a maximum of two Indians but few team owners didn’t like the idea stating that the proposal defeats the basic purpose of the mega-auction. But ahead of the roadmap meeting on November 21, reports have surfaced that six IPL teams, apart from Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals, are in the favour of retaining four to five players.
There are some teams, who were in favour of no retention before the auction but they are seeking to ensure that there is no cap on the number of Indian cricketers in the retention list. For instance, Mumbai Indians, who were the defending champions, will be looking to retain top players like Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, and Jasprit Bumrah. On the other hand, some teams also want to have the option of matching cards if they are not retaining players. Some teams are looking to buy the same set of cricketers but at a lower price. And there are some top Indian players who are expecting to take a hike on their salary up to Rs 25 crore per annum. For the next year auction, the IPL GC was supposed to propose a total purse of Rs 75 crore, but some teams want the purse to be increased to at least Rs 80 crore.
"If the board can earn so much from the media rights and the income of all teams is supposed to get anywhere between Rs 130 to Rs 150 cr per year, an increased purse won't be a bad idea. It will stop the malpractice of paying players under the table," a source said as quoted by TOI.
Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings are making a comeback after a two-year suspension that was forced on them for their involvement in the 2013 IPL corruption case. CSK and RR are targetting to buy players from Rising Pune Supergiants and Gujarat Lions, and could only be allowed to pick players from the 2015 player’s draft, which had MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina. Sanju Samson, Karun Nair and Chris Morris, these three players from RR and CSK are now part of Delhi Daredevils.
It will be interesting to see how these issues are sorted out by the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
