The IPL and the 10 franchises will meet on Wednesday to discuss a variety of issues, including whether to keep or scrap the Impact Player rule and whether to add more uncapped players to each team’s retention list. The franchises will be represented at the private meeting at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai by members of their ownership teams.
Discussions over the availability (or lack thereof) of foreign players, the frequency of the mega auction (every five years as opposed to the current three), the reinstatement of the right-to-match (RTM) card option during auctions, and a cap on the total number of retentions are other important issues.
The IPL has developed all of these criteria after its chief operating officer, Hemang Amin, met with a number of teams in recent months to get their input before deciding on the details of the massive auction that would take place the next year.
Impact Player – abolish or retain?
Eight teams scored more than 250 in the IPL 2024, with Sunrisers Hyderabad scoring the highest ever (287 vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru) among them. Experts and team representatives concurred that the Impact Player rule—which was implemented in the 2023 Indian Premier League—which permitted teams to select an additional specialist batsman or bowler depending on the game situation—was the reason for the six-hitting frenzy, particularly during the powerplay phase. Since the Impact Player rule was implemented, nine of the ten highest totals in IPL history have been achieved.
This guideline was originally intended to provide more Indian players—especially those without caps—a greater opportunity to be seen. The captain of India for both Test and ODI cricket, Rohit Sharma, expressed his disapproval of the regulation, stating that it will impede the “development” of allrounders—a skill set that is scarce in Indian T20 cricket. A few franchises also hold this opinion, and one of them told ESPNcricinfo that it has informed the IPL that it would support doing away with the regulation.
But the real questions for the IPL are whether the higher totals are helping to improve the product as a whole and whether the fans enjoy it. or not.
Increase uncapped retentions
The Indian Premier League (IPL) permitted the eight original franchises to keep up to two uncapped Indian players ahead of the 2022 major auction, while the two new teams, Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants, were each allowed to keep one. But given how consistently these individuals produce and how much the teams invest in scouting and skill development, a shift could be on the horizon.
It has been learnt that the franchises have made some recommendations to Amin. Among these are the creation of a special allowance for uncapped talent within the main retention pool and an increase in the number of RTM cards, which would allow a team to match the winning bid at the auction to re-add a player who was on their roster the previous season.
Incremental performance pay
It is believed that the IPL informed the franchises during talks about the necessity of providing financial incentives to players, given that the teams were receiving larger salaries than they had previously. The IPL’s suggestion may have been motivated, in part, by a desire to increase the pay of a player who was acquired at auction for his base price and then kept at that price despite his subsequent rise in stature.
It is thought that the IPL suggested paying players a match fee, but multiple teams quickly retaliated, asking what about the players who are benched? A player’s contract currently provides for a discretionary fee from the franchise’s total auction purse, which is determined by the team’s finish in the previous season. The IPL sets this figure. One recommendation made to the IPL is that, rather than charging a match fee, the money to be contributed to an incentive pot should be decided upon beforehand. This way, the franchise can utilise the money to reward their top performances as they see fit.
Overseas players
Franchises have made a number of ideas regarding foreign players. As long as the team stays under the retention cap, at least one franchise has informed the IPL that there should be no limitations on the amount of foreign players it may keep. Therefore, the club stated that it should be able to fill every vacancy with foreign players if desired, provided the IPL permits five total retentions.
The IPL has also been informed by franchises that they think foreign players have been abusing mini auctions to obtain unprecedentedly high payouts. The franchises feel that some of these players have shunned large auctions where the purse is divided equally among numerous teams trying to start from scratch, and as a result, they are more frugal with their spending on a single player. Teams can go all out for the one player who will round out their roster at mini auctions because they typically have a core already in place. The question of whether the Indian Premier League should require foreign players to register for major auctions is one that is being discussed.
The IPL is also considering imposing a bidding cap at mini auctions, a franchise head has revealed. This will depend on how much a team decides to reserve for its top retention selection before the big auctions. At micro auctions, no bidder may exceed that amount.
For instance, in the event that the Indian Premier League determines that a franchise has to pay its most valuable player INR 20 crore ahead of a mega auction, the highest bid at the mini auction cannot go above that amount. The teams have recommended that a silent tie-breaker be used if teams are still prepared to offer more for that particular talent.
There have been previous IPL auctions where the silent tie-breaker was used. The tie-breaker was created in 2010 with the intention of being used to break ties in smaller auctions with lesser purses. Three players have been acquired using the tie-breaker system in the history of the IPL: Ravindra Jadeja (Chennai Super Kings) in 2012, Kieron Pollard (Mumbai Indians) and Shane Bond (Kolkata Knight Riders) in 2010.
Although all of the suggestions and proposals are expected to be presented at the meeting on Wednesday, those with access to the details note that it is unclear if the Indian Premier League would immediately make a decision on these issues.