Kavya Maran has called for the removal of restrictions on the number of foreign players that can be retained. The CEO of the Sunrisers Hyderabad franchise has requested a minimum of seven retentions or Right to Match (RTM) options for an IPL franchise ahead of the mega auction. Additionally, Kavya Maran has suggested that foreign players who do not enroll in the mega auction or fail to show up after being purchased should be banned.
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) CEO Kavya Maran has called for strict action against players who choose to withdraw from the season without a concrete reason. The 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) runners-up are one among several franchises facing the issue for several seasons now.
BCCI meets IPL franchises owners to discuss parameters for 2025 Auction
Delhi Capitals (DC) co-owner Parth Jindal wants the Impact Player rule scrapped, while Kavya Maran, the owner of Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), recommended a minimum of seven players to be retained without any restrictions on the number of overseas players bought back. There was also a split vote on having a mega auction every five years. These were some of the discussions during the meeting between the BCCI and the owners of the ten IPL teams on Wednesday, in Mumbai.
The meeting, which was held at the BCCI office, was organized to discuss various points concerning retentions for the IPL 2025 season. There were also discussions on whether the right-to-match (RTM) card option should be brought back at the auction, and if a special category should be created for uncapped players to incentivize teams that have scouted and developed young talent. The frequency of the mega auctions and the auction purse were among the other points discussed.
In a media release, the BCCI said these recommendations will be taken to the IPL governing council for “further deliberation and evaluation” before formulating the player regulations. The rules for both retention and auction for the 2025 season are expected to be finalized by end of August.
Apart from Jindal and Maran, other owners who were present at the meeting were Shah Rukh Khan (principal owner of KKR), Manoj Badale and Ranjit Barthakur (principal owner and chair of Rajasthan Royals respectively), Kiran Gandhi (DC co-owner), Rupa Gurunath and Kasi Viswanathan (owner and CEO of CSK respectively).
Prathmesh Mishra and Rajesh Menon (chair and vice-president at Diageo, the group that owns RCB), Sanjiv Goenka and Shashwat Goenka (LSG owner and his son), Ness Wadia (co-owner of Punjab Kings), Amit Soni (CVC Partners, owners of Gujarat Titans) and Akash Ambani (Mumbai Indians owner), who is understood to have attended virtually.
At Wednesday’s meeting between IPL team owners and the BCCI authorities, the SRH promoter Kavya Maran emphasized the need for each franchise to have at least seven retentions or, alternatively, as many RTM options. She explained her demand with an example.
SRH CEO Kavya Maran proposes IPL retentions and auction process reforms ahead of 2025 IPL Auction.
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) CEO Kavya Maran has called for strict action against players who choose to withdraw from the season without a concrete reason. The 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) runners-up are one among several franchises facing the issue for several seasons now.
Ahead of the 2024 season, SRH had roped in Sri Lanka mystery spinner Wanindu Hasaranga for his base price of INR 1.5 crore. The contingent at the auction table were surprised after potentially claiming a steal deal. However, Hasaranga did not turn up for the season, forcing SRH to seek a replacement.
Although the former Sri Lanka skipper cited injury as the reason behind his absence, it is believed that SRH did not take the news well. It is to be noted that Hasaranga had a salary of INR 10 crore during his Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) stint.
“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,” Kavya Maran told Cricbuzz.
In the past, several English players have also withdrawn from the competition in the weeks preceding it, and it has affected the preparation of the franchises subsequently.
Kavya Maran calls for reform in Auction and RTM policies
The previous mega auction saw the BCCI set the price tag for each retention on a descending basis, ranging from INR 16 crore to INR 6 crore. However, Kavya Maran feels that it should be the franchises who decide the salary for a player they are retaining.
“The franchise should have the discretion of how they split the amount among the retained players. This will prevent situations of conflict where players feel that they are of the same calibre but one player gets a higher amount, while the other lower based on pre-assigned brackets. This will also eliminate the potential of off-contract payments,” she told Cricbuzz.
She also had a strong opinion surrounding the number of overseas retentions. SRH had assembled a very strong core of overseas players in the 2024 season, ranging from their skipper Pat Cummins to one of the best T20 players in the world in Heinrich Klaasen.
The combination resulted in some quality players like Marco Jansen and Glenn Phillips missing out on the playing XI. In the previous mega auction, there was a provision for franchises to retain a maximum of only 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,” she added.
The IPL franchise owners were involved in a crucial meeting with the BCCI to discuss the parameters for the 2025 auction as well as the fate of the impact player rule.