IPL 2024 retention rules: BCCI aims at a fine balance between competition and player retention
The saga of the Indian Premier League continues to evolve with new retention rules announced by the Board of Control for Cricket in India, keeping the sword of competition balanced both ways, where the retention of the best cricketing talent is as important as keeping the thrill going in the mega-auction scenario. Debates are ripping the arms of different franchises and players. Although the retention system has been reformed due to pleas from team owners, such modifications raise their own issues in terms of permitting retention of star performers by teams without any compromise to their budgetary provision.
Influence of Shah Rukh Khan and Kavya Maran on Retention Policies
The new retention rules were announced post much discussion when the big guns of the team aired their dissent. One of the co-owner of Kolkata Knight Riders, Shah Rukh Khan, had wanted to retain as many as eight players, but BCCI agreed to just six and the Right To Match (RTM) option gave teams elbow room to hold on to a few crucial players.
Sunrisers Hyderabad chief executive Kavya Maran wanted the cap on retention of foreign and domestic players to be scrapped. BCCI agreed to her demand, giving the discretion to the franchises to retain their overseas players without any restriction. This change enables foreign players like Pat Cummins, Travis Head, Heinrich Klaasen, and Aiden Markram along with a few active local talents like Abhishek Sharma to be retained by the franchise without any cap. While the BCCI does appear to have acceded to the requests made by the franchisee owners, the one thing still persists: Are the teams happy with this new rules after all?
Retention of Players Cost a Buck
The most important change in retention rules of IPL is that retaining players comes at a much higher cost.Earlier, under the retention policy, the retention of players was done in reverse order price scale where the costliest were retained first followed by Player No. 2 and then rest at increasingly low prices. Under the new rules, the two additional players to be retained would cost as much as the first two cost now Player No. 1: INR 18 crore, Player No. 2: INR 14 crore.
A financially daunting task lies ahead of franchises. A team can have up to five capped players at the expense of Rs 75 crore, and one uncapped player at an expense of Rs 4 crore; the remaining sum from their budget of Rs 120 crore for building the rest of the team is Rs 41 crore. As a result, with the need of at least 14 more players, the franchises would have to be quite smart about this strategy, as retaining all its top player does not really leave them with a lot of capacity to go out there and buy other key players during the auction.
Objective of BCCI: Maintain the Auction Game
The new retention rules seem to be designed towards that goal of having an exciting and dynamic IPL mega-auction. If each of the ten franchises retain six players, 60 of the top fifty will be off the market before the auction even begins. In raising the financial stakes of retention, it might just aid the BCCI in introducing the deterrents to be dished out by the teams into releasing more into the auction pool, thereby keeping the auction sky-high and lively.
Retention cap has been at about 50 percent of total budget. Now that the cost of retention is exceeding 65 percent of the budget, franchises are going to think hard over their retention strategy. Those teams want to retain the core players have to make some financial sacrifice, whereas those who are willing to allow more players away enjoy flexibility during the auctions.
Right To Match and its new version-New Right To Match (RTM) Rule
The RTM rule was also amended and gave a new dimension to the process of retaining a player. Under the new rule, after a team acquires the RTM card of a player, they have the right to match the highest price offered for that player by any other team. However, the highest bidder is to be given one last chance to enhance his offer before the team with the RTM is authorized to exercise its right.
For example, if Team 1 holds a right to match, if the highest bid from Team 2 is 6 crores, then Team 1 holds a right to match the bid. Later, Team 2 will be given an opportunity to up the ante again to 9 crores. If Team 1 still wants to exercise RTM, then they have to pay 9 crores to retain the player. This rule introduces an element of strategy and competition in the RTM process, making it costlier and tougher for teams to retain their players.
The Impact of the New Retention Rules on Successful Teams and Player-Friendly Policies
The new BCCI retention rules introduce a challenge that successful teams face in retaining their winning core. Teams which have performed well in the recent seasons may feel hampered, as retaining some of their bright stars would make a heavy dent in their coffers, and it is an inefficient way to fill up the rest of their team. Whereas the rules are there for a balanced field for an auction, they hardly give a regulatory strength to the teams which over the years have created great winning line-ups.
On the other hand, the rules are very generous to the players. The match fee system involved here will make an Indian as well as overseas player earn more money in a single match and therefore, cause a significant hike in their remuneration than any other T20 leagues like CPL, BBL, PSL, and The Hundred. Even the new RTM clause favors the players as it inflates the market value of the player in the auction process.
The MS Dhoni Factor and Retention Deadline
One of the most fascinating things about new retention rules is that retired players can now be counted. BCCI claims that retired players will work out to be uncapped, which means apparently Chennai Super Kings do not have to pay for retaining MS Dhoni as part of the capped retention quota, although whether Dhoni will play in IPL next season remains unknown as the franchise has kept mum.
The teams have until October 31 at 5 pm IST to finalize and submit the lists of retained players. This leaves one month for negotiating with the players and time for planning retention strategies to the franchises. Based on this, the date is considered to be very tight; however, the message from the BCCI is that if franchises want to get hold of their prized possession for the next season, they need to get cracking. .
Conclusion
The new retention rules announced by the IPL were a bold move by BCCI, keeping in mind the interest generated by the mega-auction but allowing teams this time to retain key players according to their interest. This time with costs involving retention going high and the RTM process turning more competitive than ever, the coming weeks will be those of tough times for franchises. Whether the rules are going to help the teams, the players, or the league at large will have to be seen. But one thing is clear: the auction of IPL is going to get as thrilling as it can.
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