The Governing Council of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Saturday narrowed in on the rule of allowing each franchise to retain five players ahead of the mega auction for the 2025 season and utilise one right-to-match card. The council members, who met at the new NCA centre in Bengaluru on September 28, also decided to increase the overall purse by a whopping 33 per cent while also setting fresh retention slabs.

According to a report in Sports Tak, franchises will have a purse of INR 120 crore, a massive increase of 33.34 per cent compared to the value of INR 90 crore set ahead of the mega auction in 2022. However, the tricky part of the pre-auction rule, as revealed in the report, stood in the retention slab.

If a franchise retains five players ahead of the mega auction, reportedly set to be held in November with the venue yet to be decided, they will have to shell out INR 75 crore from their total purse.

The breakdown of the retention slab, however, stands as follows:

1st retention: Rs. 18cr

2nd retention: Rs. 14cr

3rd retention: Rs. 11cr

4th retention: Rs. 18cr

5th retention: Rs. 14cr

The total value on the retention slab is a sharp increase from the amount set for the 2022 auction, where a franchise, retaining four players (permitted limit) will be debited INR 42 crore, with the breakdown being: INR 16 crore for the first, INR 12 crore for the second, INR 8 crore for the third and INR 6 crore for the fourth.

The report further revealed that, given the '5+1' rule set for the auction, if a franchise does not retain five players, it can use the RTM option for the remainder of the slots. For example, a team can use the RTM option for three players if it retains only three. There are also no cap on number of Indian and overseas players that a team can retain.

HOW DID YOU LIKE THIS ARTICLE? CHOOSE YOUR EMOTICON !