All you need to know about IPL 2018 Players Retention policy

IPL 2018 might still be three months away but franchises have already started preparing for the biggest carnival in the cricketing circuit. At the end of the ten seasons of the IPL, the player contracts have expired and teams have a chance to start afresh. Ahead of the IPL Auction in Bengaluru on January 27 and 28, the IPL Player Retention which is going to commence on 4th January in Mumbai will be a crucial event. For franchises retention will serve as an opportunity to form team’s core group ahead for the auctions. In the past, player retentions used to take place via e-mails with respective teams sending a communication to the BCCI of their decision. That trend, however, will see a change in 2018. With Star India entering the picture by bagging the broadcast rights, every event will be aired live on TV and on their streaming property. The retention event for obvious reason has created a lot of furore and discussions over player retention have become a hot topic for debate in the social media.

So here are all the details and the buzz that you need to know about IPL Player Retention 2018.

What does Pre Auction Retention mean?

Each franchise can retain maximum of 3 players with a certain amount deducted from their salary cap of Rs 80 Crore.

• 3 players can be retained for a sum of Rs 33 Crore.
• 2 players can be retained for a sum of Rs 21 Crore.
• 1 player can be retained for a sum of Rs 12.5 Crore.
• Maximum of 2 foreign and uncapped players can be retained for a sum of Rs 3 Crore each.

What is the Right-to-Match card?

The Right-to-Match card gives the franchise a chance to retain a player by bidding at the same auction price presented by the rival franchise during the auction.

For example: If KKR choose not to retain Kuldeep Yadav, the player will be included in the auction pool. During the auction, if hypothetically, Kuldeep is bought for Rs 2 crore by other team, KKR can exercise the Right to Match, using which they can match the amount of Rs 2 crore and retain Kuldeep in their squad. The other team will not get Kuldeep in the team, in such a scenario, in spite of the highest bid.

Franchise Squad Size

All the franchises can have a maximum of 25 players in the squad, which include a maximum of 8 overseas players.

Every team must have a minimum 18 players in the squad.

Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals are all set to return after their 2-year ban and can retain players from their 2015 squad provided they played from Rising Pune Supergiants and Gujarat Lions.

Buzz regarding retention of players by teams before the auction.

MI – Rohit Sharma and Pandya Brothers

KKR - Manish Pandey, Chris Lynn, Andre Russell

RCB - Virat Kohli, AB De Villiers

SRH - Shikhar Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, David Warner

RR - Steve Smith, Ajinkya Rahane

CSK - MS dhoni, DJ Bravo, Suresh Raina

KXIP - David Miller, Glenn Maxwell

DD - Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer