IPL 2025 Mega Auction: Big demand of IPL franchises, asked for permission to retain 5-6 players

A mega auction is to be held before IPL 2025. A meeting of the franchises with the Board of Control for Cricket in India is scheduled for next week regarding this. Before this meeting, some important suggestions have been shared by the franchises with IPL officials during the feedback session on player retention before the 2025 auction. Their demand is that a mega auction should be held only once in five years. Allow retention of four to six players. Give each franchise eight right-to-match options.

According to ESPNCricinfo, a senior official of a franchise said that there are more than one advantages of having a mega auction every five years instead of three years. The longer gap between the mega auctions will help teams develop young players, especially uncapped Indians. The existing franchises have invested heavily in this area since the first IPL season in 2008.

Academies are set up to find talented players at the grassroots level and develop them to the international level. A mega auction every five years would encourage teams to do this, while a three-year cycle carries the risk of quickly losing a player they have groomed to a rival franchise.

There was a gap of four years between the two mega auctions in the last decade. After 2014, the auction was held in 2018. That’s when Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals returned after a two-year suspension. The COVID-19 pandemic postponed the 2021 mega auction by a year. On both occasions, the franchises extended their players’ contracts by a year.