IPL franchises to take final call on retentions by October 31

The IPL teams, using a combination of retention and Right-To-Match option, can retain up to six players from their 2024 squad

October 31, 2024, has been set as the deadline date for all ten franchises of the Indian Premier League (IPL) to finalise their retention for the mega auction for the 2025 season. The IPL teams, using a combination of retention and Right-To-Match option, can retain up to six players from their 2024 squad - comprising a maximum of five capped players (India/overseas) and two uncapped Indians, based on the rules announced by the BCCI on Saturday, following a meeting of the IPL Governing Council in Bengaluru.

IPL Trophy(IPL / Twitter)

"It is at the discretion of the IPL franchise to choose their combination for retentions and RTMs," the IPL release said. “The six retentions/RTMs can have a maximum of five capped players and a maximum of two uncapped players.”

If a player makes his international debut before October 31, he will be considered capped. However, if he is retained by the franchise as an uncapped player, but makes his international debut before the IPL deadline, he will be considered uncapped and the team will only lose INR 4 crore from their purse. The BCCI also announced that the overall purse of all the teams have been increased by 33.34 per cent to INR 120 crore for the auction.

IPL brings back “uncapped player” rule

The IPL also revived the "uncapped player" rule for the auction, which was discarded in 2021. According to the rule, as explained in the IPL statement released on Saturday, "a capped Indian player will become uncapped, if the player has in the last five calendar years preceding the year in which the relevant Season is held, not played in the starting XI in International Cricket (Test match, ODI, Twenty20 International) or does not have a Central Contract with BCCI. This will be applicable for Indian Players only." The rule will hence allow Chennai Super Kings to retain their former captain MS Dhoni, who last played an international game in the 2019 World Cup and announced his retirement a year later, as an uncapped player.