During a meeting with the owners of all 10 teams in Mumbai on Wednesday, the IPL’s Governing Council might agree to raise the team budget to Rs 120 crore and allow up to six retentions, including ‘Right To Match’ (RTM) options.
A major auction is planned for the end of this year, so the details need to be organized. Five key topics will be discussed at the meeting between the BCCI and the team owners, and there may be different opinions on some of these points. Although the BCCI won’t officially announce the rules for team construction, they will consider the owners’ suggestions.
The PTI talked to several teams, and they all agreed that the current budget for the team, which is Rs 100 crore, should be raised by at least 20 to 25 percent.
“I believe that increase is definitely going to happen. The usual increase should be between 20 to 25 percent, so a budget of Rs 120 crore to 125 crore would be reasonable. Most teams would likely agree to that,” a high-ranking official from one of the IPL teams told PTI, asking to remain anonymous.
But the bigger problem is keeping the same players on the team, as each team has different needs. One influential team suggested keeping up to eight players, including those who can be re-signed, but it’s unlikely that other teams will agree to this.
“Some teams, such as Delhi Capitals with Jake Fraser-McGurk and Tristan Stubbs, and Sunrisers Hyderabad with Pat Cummins, Heinrich Klaasen, and Travis Head, might want to keep more than one foreign player,” said a source from the Indian Premier League.
Another issue might be the ‘Impact Player’ rule. Even though Rohit Sharma, who led India to victory in the T20 World Cup, and Virat Kohli, a top batter, have both talked about how this rule could impact the growth of all-round players, none of the team owners would object to having 12 players available for a match.
They work with cricket, and it might be the BCCI’s job to protect all-rounders, who are becoming less common due to this rule.
However, a team like Chennai Super Kings might argue that the ‘Impact Player’ rule could let their star player, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, play for one more season.
If the Impact Player rule is removed, Dhoni, who now bats at number 8, won’t be able to do that and still have Shivam Dube in the team without using his bowling, which is easy for batters to hit.
