Debate has been on recently between the Indian Premier League and franchise owners with regard to whether retired cricketers for five years could be taken at par with uncapped players. The point emerged during one of the sessions of ongoing deliberation on retention rules ahead of the 2025 auction. Throughout its existence—from the first IPL season in 2008 to scrapping in 2021—the rule allowing retired players to be treated as uncapped did exist, but was never used during that time.
Treating retired cricketers as uncapped players can be disrespectful to cricket greats
During a recent meeting, more than one franchise objected to the reinstatement of the rule. SRH owner Kavya Maran said that treating retired players as uncapped would be disrespectful to their value. Maran insisted that they should enter the auction and let the market dictate their price. She said that if an uncapped player ended up getting more money than a former international who was retained as uncapped, it could create a wrong precedent. At least one other franchise representative echoed reservations about the proposal.
ESPNcricinfo initially misreported that Chennai Super Kings suggested the above rule change as a way to retain MS Dhoni. Dhoni had announced his retirement from international cricket on August 15, 2020, and was retained by CSK for INR 12 crore ahead of the IPL 2022 auction. An uncapped player retained that year cost INR 4 crore, highlighting the possible disparities in player valuations.
Questions regarding Dhoni’s IPL future have been plenty in the last two seasons. Dhoni handed over the CSK captaincy to Ruturaj Gaikwad ahead of the 2024 season and participated minimally as a boundary hitter. Dhoni said that he would wait for the final retention rules before deciding on his future.
Franchises were unanimous in their belief that Indian players, who had not played internationally for five years, should lower their base prices. As of now, the minimum base price for all capped Indian players is INR 50 lakh. Lowering the base price would enable such players to be bought at the auctions, IPL COO Hemang Amin suggested. Franchises felt that often due to the higher base price, capped Indians remain unsold despite coming back into multiple auctions.
The discussion on the retention rule walks the tightrope between fairness and market value for all players. As the IPL gears up for the 2025 auctions, these kinds of discussions are going to have a huge bearing on how teams plan and retain players.
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