The main issue discussed in a recent meeting between the Board of Control for Cricket in India and the 10 teams of the Indian Premier League (IPL) was whether to hold a large auction before the next season. The meeting, which took place at the BCCI’s office in Mumbai on a Wednesday evening, did not reach a decision, and there was no agreement on this topic. A report on Cricbuzz mentioned that several people are opposed to having a mega auction, including Shah Rukh Khan, the owner of the Kolkata Knight Riders and a well-known actor and producer, who strongly supported not having one. Parth Jindal, co-owner of the Delhi Capitals, confirmed this to reporters in Mumbai and also mentioned that there is disagreement among the teams about the Impact Player rule.
“The decision about whether to hold a large auction will affect how many players each team can keep. If the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decides not to have the big auction, teams might not need to keep any players,” the report explained.
Another topic of debate was how many players each team could keep, and the ten team owners couldn’t agree on this either.
“At one point, it was said that the owner of Kolkata Knight Riders, Shah Rukh Khan, had a strong disagreement with Ness Wadia, the co-owner of Punjab Kings, about how many players to keep. Shah Rukh wanted to keep many players, while Wadia was reportedly against keeping too many,” the report continued.
When asked about the Impact Player rule, which was criticized by many players and coaches in the IPL 2024, Jindal shared his thoughts with reporters in Mumbai. He said that while the rule allows opportunities for many new players, he doesn’t support it because it slows down the development of true all-rounders in Indian cricket.
Other IPL team owners who came to Mumbai for the meeting include Kiran Kumar Grandhi, who is a co-owner of Delhi Capitals, Sanjiv Goenka from Lucknow Super Giants, Rupa Gurunath from Chennai Super Kings, and Kavya Maran from Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Rajasthan Royals had their co-owner Manoj Badale, CEO Jake Luck McCrum, and Executive Chairman Ranjit Barthakur present. Also there were Amit Soni from Gujarat Titans and Prathmesh Mishra from Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Some owners joined the meeting through video call, including the Ambani family who own Mumbai Indians.
