No RTM; RCB, CSK, MI Allowed To Retain 5 Players As BCCI Finalise IPL 2025 Mega Auction Rules
RCB can retain up to five players before IPL 2025 (BCCI/IPLT20.com)
In a massive development, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is all set to allow IPL franchises to retain as many as five players before going into the bidding wars for the mega auction. As reported by Express Sports, the decision was made after most of the franchises' opinions were discussed in a recent meeting at BCCI headquarters.
However, there won't be any Right To Match (RTM) cards available for the franchises, forcing them to pre-plan the strategies accordingly before heading to the auction hall. While most of the franchises, such as Mumbai Indians (MI) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), will massively benefit from the strategy, teams such as Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Punjab Kings (PBKS) will pay the price for not showing faith in a settled core.
"The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is likely to allow the IPL franchise to retain five players with no right to match option available at the upcoming IPL auction," an Express Sports statement read.
How Can KKR, MI Get Benefited From Latest IPL Auction Rules?
Considering the fact that KKR looked like a well-oiled machine in IPL 2024, where they showed sheer dominance under the leadership of Shreyas Iyer and mentor Gautam Gambhir, they will be more than satisfied with the BCCI's change in plan. The Purple and Gold Brigade have Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Rinku Singh and Shreyas himself in their unit, with Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana, and Harshit Rana expected to fight for a last retained place.
Similarly for Mumbai Indians, they have easily got the most robust Indian core, with Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya hogging the limelight. The job will now be easier to choose, even though there is no clarity regarding how many foreigners and Indians players can be retained according to the latest policy yet.
It is important to note that before the 2022 mega auction by BCCI, franchises were asked to retain no more than three Indian players and two overseas players in their list, which was up to four players back then.