IPL 2025 Mega Auction: Sunrisers Hyderabad Boss Kavya Maran Takes On BCCI At Meet, Demands 7 Retentions Or RTM Options

The IPL franchise owners met BCCI officials to finalise rules ahead of IPL 2025 mega auction which will take place next year.

The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 finalists Sunrisers Hyderabad CEO Kavya Maran has demanded an unprecedented option to retain at least 7 players or equivalent ‘Right to Match’ (RTM) option for every franchise before the upcoming IPL 2025 mega auction next year. Kavya, daughter of Sun Group owner Kalanidhi Maran, made these demands at the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) meeting with IPL owners. 

The SRH CEO also demanded that the foreign cricketers who failed to turn out for their franchises at the last minute after being bought at the auction should also be banned.   

“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,” Kavya Maran was quoted as saying at the BCCI meeting by Cricbuzz website. 

“There have been numerous instances in the past where a player has preferred to go to the auction when he has felt that the retention amount is on the lower side. There have also been instances where multiple players have felt that they should be the first retention, and if not retained as first, they have asked to be put in the auction instead. To avoid this, we can give the players the chance to either be retained or RTM at the market discovered price, ensuring that the player is not disgruntled about the retention price,” she added. 

Kavya Maran's recommendations at the IPL owners meeting (Espncricinfo):

– Minimum of 7 should be retained.
– No limit on overseas/Indian/uncapped retention out of those 7.
– Choice of discussing with players about retention/RTM at the auction.
– Mega auction every 5 years. pic.twitter.com/l7g1bihGyJ

— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) August 1, 2024

Kavya Maran was also concerned that if the BCCI only allow retention of players, then the franchises will pay more than ‘retention salary’ to these cricketers through ‘side contracts’.  “If only retentions are allowed, there is a good possibility that franchises will pay their retained players more than the retention value through side contracts. But with RTMs, a player gets the market price in the auction within the restrictions of the purse and this will ensure that the purse decides and restricts the purchasing power of all franchises and not the bank balance of the franchise… It will also ensure transparency and maintain the integrity of a brand as prestigious as the IPL,” Kavya Maran said in the meeting.  

The SRH also called for removal of the cap on the number of foreign players that can be retained. Last time around, the Indian cricket board only permitted retention of maximum of two foreign players. 

“Each team is built differently and the core strengths of various squads are different. Some have strong overseas players, some have strong capped Indian 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. For example, we can retain four overseas and two capped Indians or three overseas and three uncapped Indians and so on,” Kavya said. 

Kavya Maran and SRH are still fuming that Sri Lankan all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga pulled out of IPL 2024 at the last minute. A lot of people believe that it was due to Hasaranga’s low bid value of Rs 1.5 crore as compared to Rs 10 crore that he commanded with Royal Challengers Bangalore.  

“After being selected in the auction, if a player doesn’t come to play the season for any reason apart from injury, he should be banned. The franchises put in a lot of effort into the auction to form their combinations. If a player goes for a low amount in the auction, and subsequently doesn’t turn up, it affects the combination and the balance of the side. There have been many instances of overseas players not turning up for this reason,” the SRH boss felt.