IPL Auction Explainer: RTM with a twist, retention slabs and cap on foreign player fees

The IPL Governing Council on Saturday (September 28) proposed major changes to player regulations and retention rules ahead of the next cycle (2025-27) of the tournament. The overarching rule issued allows franchises to re-sign as many as six players from their existing rosters in any combination of Retentions + Right To Match (RTM).

Before we get to the RTM option, the 10 teams will have flexibility to go about their retentions, but their decisions will be governed by fine print shared by the BCCI with the franchises and accessed by Cricbuzz.

What are the retention slabs and how do they work?

Franchises can retain a maximum of five capped players (Indian/Overseas) and a maximum of two uncapped players. Each uncapped player retained will be valued at INR 4 crores and this corresponding amount will be subtracted from the total purse for each team (INR 120 crores for IPL 2025). The five capped player retentions will be valued as follows.

Considering the above slab, here are a couple of imaginary scenarios:

Scenario 1: Team A retains 6 players (5 capped + 1 uncapped)

In this case, a total of INR 79 crores will be deducted from the purse and Team A will have INR 41 crores to spend on the auction table. Having retained six players, they will also have no RTMs.

Scenario 2: Team B retains 5 players (4 capped + 1 uncapped)

In this case, a total of INR 65 crores will be deducted from the purse and Team B will have INR 55 crores to spend on the auction table. Having retained five players, they will also have one RTM (explained below) to try and bring back another of their existing players when he comes up at the auction.

For the aforementioned scenarios, the auction purses deductions that are cited are the minimum that it would become. It could go down further, for example, a team could choose to pay Retained Player 1 INR 20 crores -- above his bracketed value -- and therefore have an additional INR 2 crores slashed off their purse and so on.

The new addition to using Right To Match (RTM)

Another way to re-acquire their existing player is via the RTM option during the auction. As mentioned above, the number of RTMs in possession of a team will be a function of a simple arithmetic: (6 - No. of. Direct Retentions). That is, if a franchise retain only three players, they will have three RTMs.

However, the BCCI has introduced a substantial change to the way the RTM option can be played during the auction. Where previously, the team could simply agree to match the highest bid amount at the auction to claim the player, this time around, the highest bidder will be given one final opportunity to further raise their bid before the team holding the RTM claims the player.

For example: If Ravichandran Ashwin is being auctioned and Royal Challengers Bengaluru has placed the highest bid of INR 6 crores for him, then Rajasthan Royals (Ashwin's current franchise) will be first asked if they wish to exercise their RTM (provided they have one). If RR agree, then RCB will be given one more chance to increase and place a final bid. If RCB now raise it to INR 9 crores, then RR can use their RTM and re-sign Ashwin for INR 9 crores.

Cap on Foreign Player Fees in mini-auctions

Meanwhile, the IPL GC has also proposed new regulations to quell the disgruntlement around overseas players choosing to game the auction system by using the demand-supply imbalance at the mini-auctions to earn themselves hefty paychecks. As per the new regulations, an overseas player will have to mandatorily register for the mega auction (2025). Failing to do so would mean he will miss the subsequent small auction too. Exceptions to this may be granted in the event of an injury/medical condition that will need to be confirmed by the home board.

The overseas players will also have a salary cap from the next mini-auction (2026). The maximum fee an overseas player can stand to gain from the mini-auction will be determined by the highest retention price of INR 18 crores (mentioned above) or the highest auction price at the mega auction, whichever is lower.

For example: If Virat Kohli is retained at the highest bracket of INR 18 crores and Ishan Kishan bags the highest bid of INR 16 crores at the 2025 mega auction, then in the subsequent mini-auction of 2026, no overseas player can have a salary more than INR 16 crores -- the lesser of those two amounts.

In the same example, if Ishan Kishan is signed in the mega auction for INR 20 crores, then the maximum that an overseas player's salary can go up to is INR 18 crores.

As per the new regulations, the bidding for an overseas player can continue till he's eventually sold to a franchise and the final amount will be charged to the winning team's auction purse. However, the incremental amount (over 16 or 18 crores in the above examples) will go to the BCCI and be utilised towards players' welfare.

Deadline for retentions

The franchises have until 5 PM IST on October 31, 2024 to finalise and submit the list of retained players ahead of the auction. "It may be noted that for retention purposes, any player who gets capped on or before October 31, 2024, will be considered a capped player."