Retention Wars: Which team wants what to happen for IPL 2025 auction?

The meeting between IPL franchises and their owners regarding all things IPL 2025 Mega Auction took place in the BCCI headquarters at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday, July 31. The discussion was slated to be mainly on reaching a consensus on the number of retentions, Right To Match (RTM) card options, and other related issues.

Yet, in addition to the above, the requirement of a Mega Auction was at the forefront of certain franchises, among other aspects like the overseas players' unavailability and the Impact Player Rule.

The board confirmed that the final decision over all matters concerning the Auction would be communicated to the teams in the coming weeks. They said in a statement:

"The franchise owners tabled feedback on player regulations and other commercial aspects, including central merchandising, licensing, and gaming. The BCCI will now take these recommendations to the IPL Governing Council for further deliberation and evaluation before formulating the IPL player regulations."

What was upspringing was the teams at the top uniting on most wishes and those in the bottom half wanting the opposite.

For a better understanding of the demands of the IPL franchises for the 2025 auction, here is a team-wise breakdown of the same.

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#1 Kolkata Knight Riders

What could the defending IPL champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) want over stability and bringing almost all the players want? After all the side dominated in the 2024 season as very few have in league history en route to their third IPL title.

According to a BCCI source, as reported by Cricbuzz, KKR co-owner Shah Rukh Khan was strongly against even having a Mega Auction. This is understandable since the franchise had almost all 11 players contribute massively at different stages to help them win the IPL 2024 title.

Furthermore, reports from ESPNCricinfo suggested that KKR wanted as many as eight players to be brought back through the RTM method.

Wish Summary:

No Mega Auction

8 Players to be brought back through RTM

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#2 SunRisers Hyderabad

It is easy to comprehend that the SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) had a similar wish list as KKR during the meeting, considering the two sides were the last ones standing in IPL 2024.

Their owner, Kavya Maran, suggested a minimum of seven players to be retained with no cap on the number of overseas and capped or uncapped Indian players, as per ESPNCricinfo reports.

The request is unsurprising considering SRH finished second last season after a hattrick of dismal campaigns from 2021 to 2023. They finally established a core and would want to bring back all or most of their players from IPL 2024.

Kavya Maran also suggested that a player could be retained through plain Retention, a combination of Retention and RTM or even exclusively RTM to ensure a player isn't disappointed with his price.

She also felt the franchises must be allowed to negotiate the salaries of the retained players with only a total amount from the IPL instead of the slab method.

Example: If three players are retained, the slab method has the franchises ranking options 1 to 3 with the prices as ₹15 crore, ₹11 crore, and ₹7 crore for a total cap of ₹33 crore.

Another report from Cricbuzz stated that SRH was also against the Mega Auction like KKR with Kavya Maran saying:

"It takes a lot of time to build a squad and as discussed it also takes quite a bit of time and investment for the younger players to mature. It has taken Abhishek Sharma three years to become consistent with his performances. You would agree that there are many such examples in other teams too."

It must also be noted that reports suggested that the teams were split on having the Mega Auction every five years.

Wish Summary:

No Mega Auction

8 Players to be retained with no cap on Overseas or Indian players

Doing away with the Retention Slab method

Exclusive RTM retentions to help overcome Player's price dissapointemts

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#3 Delhi Capitals

The Delhi Capitals (DC) are coming off a middling IPL 2024 season, finishing sixth with seven wins in 14 games.

Yet, with the franchise's lack of ultimate success and relatively poor last few campaigns, their co-owner Parth Jindal was all in on the Mega Auction and against too many retentions.

He said as quoted by Cricbuzz:

"I was surprised that there was debate on whether to hold the big auction. Some people said that there should not be a mega auction at all. There should be only smaller auctions. I'm not in that camp. I feel that it evens the playing field and it's very good for everyone. It makes the IPL what it is. It makes it competitive. It makes it an even playing field. What we are learning is that team owners don't want the auction. It's just a few owners."

Jindal was also vehemently against the Impact Player Rule, operational over the past two seasons.

"Some people want it because it gives a chance to young players to play in the IPL. Some people don't want it because it is detrimental to Indian cricket in terms of the development of all-rounders. So it's a mixed bag. I'm in the second camp. I don't want it. I prefer the game as it is, XI vs XI. I think all-rounders are very important. You have different players who don't bowl in the IPL or don't bat in the IPL because of this rule, which is not good for Indian cricket," said Jindal.

Indian skipper Rohit Sharma and others have also spoken out against the Impact Player Rule, due to it diminishing the role of a specialist all-rounder and his development.

Wish Summary:

Against too many retentions

All in on Mega Auction

Remove the Impact Player Rule

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#4 Punjab Kings

It was another disastrous IPL campaign for the Punjab Kings (PBKS) in 2024 with the side finishing second to bottom, with only five wins in 14 games. Their drought of not qualifying for the playoffs extended to a dismal 10 seasons after the IPL 2024 debacle.

Thus, it was no surprise that the franchise co-owner, Ness Wadia was reportedly involved in a heated argument with KKR co-owner Shah Rukh Khan over the cap on the number of retentions.

While Shah Rukh pushed for more retentions, Ness Wadia called for lesser retentions and was pro-Mega Auction.

Wish Summary:

Lesser retentions

Pro-Mega Auction

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#5 Other Franchises

While no specific requests or suggestions were reported from the other six franchises, they all reportedly attended the meeting.

Apart from Parth Jindal, DC also had co-owner Kiran Kumar Grandhi in attendance.

Others included Sanjiv Goenka of Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), Rupa Gurunath of Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Manoj Badale of Rajasthan Royals (RR), Prathmesh Mishra of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and the Ambanis of Mumbai Indians (through video conference).