Indian Premier League 2018: Players likely to be retained by each franchisee
The news that all IPL fans have been waiting for is finally here - the player retention and auction policy for IPL 2018.
After countless discussions and brooding over how many players each franchisee would be permitted to retain, we finally have an answer. Despite occasional rumours of an open auction on the cards, the IPL governing council has finally decided that five is the magic number of players that can be retained for IPL 2018. Teams like Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sun Risers Hyderabad would be pleased with this decision, while Delhi Daredevils and Kings XI Punjab would have been hoping for fewer retentions and more superstars in the auction.
The player retention could be either before the auction and/or right-to-match (RTM) cards during the auction, with not more than three of each being allowed.
Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals fans will be happy to know that they will be able to retain or use RTM cards on players that were in their squads in the 2015 season and played for either RPS or GL in the subsequent seasons.
If you are really quiet and attentive, you could probably hear some whistling from Tamil Nadu as they rejoice with the prospect of having MSD, Raina, Bravo, Sir Jadeja and Brendon McCullum play in yellow again. RR fans, on the other hand, won't be too excited with only Smith, Rahane and Faulkner being worthy for retention.
Also, there are constraints on the five players that are allowed to be retained. A maximum number of 3 Capped Indian players, 2 Overseas players and 2 Uncapped Indian players can be retained. This cap is a big bummer to primarily Chennai Super Kings, who will have to let go of one of Dhoni, Raina, Jadeja and Ashwin.
A very interesting change is the dynamic pricing employed in salary purse cuts based on number of players retained. If a franchisee opts to retain 3 players their salary purse will be down by ?33 crore (15, 11 and 7 crores). If they opt to retain 2, their purse will be down by ?21 crore (12.5 and 8.5 crores). For just one retention, their purse would be down by ?12.5 crore. These deductions apply to only capped players. Every uncapped player retained would cost a reasonable 3 crore.
With these rules in mind, let's take a look at what each IPL franchisee is likely to do: