IPL 2025 Auction rules: Franchises can retain up to 6 players, RTM option brought back, uncapped player rule and more

BCCI has announced the rules for the IPL 2025 season, making some major changes ahead of the mega auctions for next year's league. Some of the major changes include an increase in the franchise purse, the reintroduction of the uncapped player and right to match rules and stricter rules for foreign players.

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New IPL retention rules:

Purse amount raised:

BCCI has increased the purse for IPL franchises from ₹100 crore to ₹120 crore, a 20 per cent hike from last year. Franchises will have to shell out ₹18 crore, ₹14 crore and ₹11 crore for the first three retentions. If they wish to retain two more players, they will have to pay ₹18 crore and ₹14 crore respectively.

Uncapped player rule brought back:

IPL franchises can now retain up to 6 players, 5 capped and one uncapped. The BCCI has made a major change by bringing back the uncapped player rule, where international players who have not had a BCCI contract in the last few years can be retained under the uncapped player category.

So if a franchise decides to retain 6 players, they will have to pay a total of ₹75 crore for the capped players and ₹4 crore for the uncapped player.

RTM brought back:

Right to Match option is being reintroduced by the BCCI for the 2025 mega auction, allowing franchises to match the highest bid for a player who represented them in the previous season. The option was last introduced for the 2017 Mega Auction, but was scrapped ahead of the 2022 auction.

According to ESPNcricinfo, the rule is being reintroduced after at least three franchises argued in favour of it. MI, SRH and KKR are said to have argued that they wanted 7-8 RTMs during the auction.

However, the rule has been slightly changed this year to give the highest bidder one more chance to change their bid for a player before the team holding the RTM card can exercise their bid.

Strict rules for foreign players:

BCCI is now mandating foreign players to register for the mega auction if they want to be eligible for mini auction next year. The rule has been brought after the most expensive player tag was brought twice during the mini auction last year.