IPL 2025 Retained Players Complete Rules and FAQs Guidebook

A complete rehaul in the rules in our explanation for the IPL 2025 retained players full new and updated changes that we are going to see.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) after a long waiting period has finally announced the much-awaited retained players rules and regulations for IPL 2025. As understood from the official announcement, each team can Retain or RTM a maximum of 6 players with a maximum of 5 capped (Indian or Overseas) players, and a maximum of 2 uncapped players. This is a big change from the IPL 2022 Mega Auction where only 4 players were allowed to retain without the use of an RTM card.

What’s the Overall Purse Bifurcation in IPL 2025?

The Retentions or Right to Match (RTM) options will work in a way that if any team retains only three players, then they can exercise the RTM card for the other 3 players in the Auction. Each team will get a 120 Cr purse for the entire IPL 2025 Auction. Of these 120 Cr, if any team retains 6 players, then their 79 Cr will be blocked right away. From purse deduction POV for IPL 2025 retentions, the first capped retained player will cost 18 Cr, the second capped retained player will cost 14 Cr, and the third capped retention will cost 11 Cr.

But the interesting strategic change is when teams retain more than 3 players. For example, If any team decides to retain more than 3 players, then they will have to shell out 18 Cr for the fourth retention, and 14 Cr for the fifth retention. However, in case of an uncapped retained player, only 4 Cr will be deducted. So, if a team retains 6 players in total, their 79 Cr will be blocked. Thus, they will get only 41 Cr in the Mega Auction. 

What’s a Right-to-Match Card in IPL 2025?

The RTM is another interesting concept that BCCI brought back to the table. In case of an RTM, the current team of the player will be given an opportunity to match that bid, and get back the player. For example, if CSK retain only 5 players, then they can exercise 1 RTM card. Let’s assume CSK retain 5 players, and Matheesha Pathirana has a maximum bid of 10 Cr from MI. In this scenario, CSK can match the bid at 10 Cr. However, MI will have the opportunity to increase the bid price one more time. If MI raise the final bid to 12 Cr, then CSK will also get the opportunity to re-match that bid, and buy Pathirana for 12 Cr. 

What’s the Match Fee Rule Change in IPL 2025?

The BCCI in their historic announcement has announced that each player will get 7.5L as an additional fee per match for the matches they play in IPL 2025. This will be over and above their contracted price. So, if a player plays 14 matches in IPL 2025, he will get a total of 1.05 Cr. Each team will now have to reserve 12.6 Cr for this initiative. This is a big change to reward young players who play regularly in the IPL, but are hired at a lower price.  

What are the Big changes in Rules for Overseas players?

BCCI in their crackdown to penalize the Overseas players for their disciplinary and unethical issues have announced that Overseas players who after getting selected in the Auction, didn’t make themselves available for the tournament, will now be banned from IPL for 2 years. In addition, for players to enter the Mini Auction, they should have also registered in the Mega Auction. Without that, the Overseas player will be ineligible to participate in the Mini Auction.   

What are the Biggest Change of Rules for Uncapped Players?

The BCCI in their announcement for rule number 7 has categorically mentioned that a capped Indian player will become uncapped if the Indian player has in the last five calendar years preceding the year in which the relevant Season is held, not played in the starting XI in any International Cricket (Test match, ODI, Twenty20 International) or does not have a Central Contract with BCCI. So, in this scenario, players like MS Dhoni, Piyush Chawla, Mohit Sharma, and Amit Mishra will automatically become uncapped. 

What’s the deadline to submit the retained players for IPL 2025?

The BCCI has set October 31, 5 pm IST as the deadline for all teams to submit their official retained players list for IPL 2025. The Auction is set to take place somewhere in mid-November. Interestingly, if any uncapped player makes his debut before October 31 then that player will be considered as capped. The likes of Harshit Rana, Nitish Reddy, and Mayank Yadav can become capped in the upcoming T20 series vs Bangladesh.  

© ipladda.com