IPL Auctions: Teams differ on retention policy

New Delhi: Two IPL team owners on Tuesday floated the idea of having next edition’s players’ auction in England but the suggestion could not find favour with the majority of the franchises during a meeting with the BCCI in Mumbai.

“Yes, there were discussions whether we could shift this year’s auction abroad. A couple of franchise owners suggested England as this will be a big auction with most players back in the pool. However majority of the members want it to be held in India,” a senior BCCI official said.

Rajasthan Royals have made a suggestion to do away with the retention policy as well as Right to Match  while Kings XI Punjab wanted the retention policy to stay at two players. Most of the other teams wanted anything between three to five (including retention and Right to Match) while salary cap will be raised from '60 crore to '75 crore.

It was after a long time that majority of the owners turned up for a discussion with the IPL governing council members.

“The meeting was well attended.

“Delhi Daredevils owner G.M. Rao, Mumbai Indians’ Akash Ambani, Kolkata Knight Riders’ Shah Rukh Khan and Jay Mehta, Kings XI Punjab’s Mohit Burman and Ness Wadia were present. Rajasthan Royals was represented by Manoj Badale while CSK’s representative was John George,” the official informed.

IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla, however, did not divulge any information after the meeting got over. “The meeting went off well. The idea was to invite actual team owners and solicit their views now that 10 years have concluded. Lot of things like retention, salary cap, squad strength were discussed. Majority of the owners want player retention. I think we will be able to finalise the details in a fortnight,” Shukla said.