During a recent meeting with IPL team owners and BCCI authorities, there were several proposals presented by Sunrisers Hyderabad CEO Kavya Maran to reform the retention and auction processes in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
The aim of her suggestions is to provide more flexibility for franchises, ensure fair market pricing for players, and maintain the integrity of competition.Specifically, her key ideas include allowing at least six retentions or Right to Match (RTM) options per franchise and removing the cap on foreign players retained.
Primary proposal from Kavya Maran is that each franchise should have a minimum of six retentions or RTM options before the mega auction. She said these could be used in combinations such as all six RTMs, all six retentions or four retentions and two RTMs. “We can use it as four retentions and two RTMs, or all six retentions, or all six RTMs and so on. The choice on whether a retention or RTM is used should be with the franchise based on discussions with the player,” she was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.
The second point she raised involved concerns over player satisfaction with retention amounts. She recommended either allowing players to go to auction at a market-discovered price if they were not being retained or retaining them at an appropriate price.
“There have been instances where multiple players have felt that they should be retained first; otherwise they would like to go through an auction process instead. Also, we have seen some situations when players decided not to retain because of lower retention prices. In order for this not to happen again we can allow player’s option either retain/RTM him/her at market discovered price so that player doesn’t feel bad about retention amount.”-Kavya Maran
Another issue highlighted by Maran was the need to get rid of limits on keeping foreign players. She contended that teams are built differently depending on how heavily they rely on their overseas players.
“There are different ways of building teams and there are different core strengths. Some have strong capped Indian players, some strong overseas players, and some strong uncapped players. In our case, we have a strong core of overseas players. The number of capped/uncapped/overseas players retained should be at the discretion of the franchise and not restricted,” she argued.
Furthermore, Maran suggested that those who do not turn up after being purchased at the auction unless due to injury should be banned from playing in the IPL.
“If a player has been selected through an auction but does not participate in a season other than for reasons of injury, he must be disqualified.”
‘IPL oldies are very useful. They have experience, some of them carrying brands. When we limit the value for these players to uncapped amount, it is like we do not value the player and his worth. However, in some cases retired players can fetch a higher price at auction than just being retained as uncapped pre-auction,’ Kavya Maran said.
At last, Maran made proposals to revise the way money is deducted from the overall salary cap for retained players. She suggested that this should be an overall pot depending on the number of retentions with franchises having discretion on how they want to divide it among those retentions.
‘The money deducted from the overall salary cap for pre-auction retentions must be an overall pot based on the number of players retained and should not be individual amounts for first retention, second retention etc.,’ she opined; ‘how they split the amount among the retained players should be left at franchise’s discretion’, she suggested.
Maran’s expansive suggestions are meant for strategic flexibility enhancement by IPL franchises, safeguarding player interests and league integrity conservation.
