IPL 2025 Auction Retention Rules Revealed

On September 28, 2024, the IPL Governing Council unveiled the much-anticipated retention rules ahead of the IPL 2025 Mega Auction. The council held a meeting with all 10 franchise owners before finalising the retention rules.

Here, we’ll look at the retention rules announced for the IPL 2025 Auction in detail.

How many player retentions are allowed before the IPL 2025 Auction?

The franchises can retain a maximum of 6 players either via retention or exercise the Right to Match (RTM) option. The retained players need to be from their existing squad.

Among the 6 retentions, or RTMs, a team can have a maximum of 5 capped players (Indian and overseas) and a maximum of 2 uncapped players.

Also Read | IPL Auctions – Explained

What is the Right to Match option?

The RTM option has been reintroduced in the IPL 2025 auction. Under this option, a team can exercise their right to buy back a player during the auction who was in their squad in the previous season. They have the option to match the highest bid made by another team to buy back the player.

What are the retention slabs?

The IPL Governing Council has set certain retention slabs for the capped and uncapped players. 

For the first 3 capped retentions, INR 18 crore, INR 14 crore, and INR 11 crore will be deducted from the franchise auction purse. For the next 2 capped retentions, the deductions will be INR 18 crore and INR 14 crore. If a team retains an uncapped player, it will result in a deduction of INR 4 crore.

Suppose a team retains 4 capped and 2 uncapped players; their deduction will be INR 69 crore from the total auction purse.

Also Read | How many players can be in an IPL squad?

What is the total auction purse available for the IPL 2025 season?

The auction purse for the IPL 2025 witnesses an increase of INR 20 crore from the previous season. This means the franchises will carry INR 120 crore in their auction purse.

Alongside that, the total salary cap also witnesses an increase as the council announced a match fee of INR 7.5 lakhs per match for each playing member. This also includes the impact player.

The salary cap now includes the auction purse, incremental performance pay, and the newly introduced match fee. Now the salary cap of each franchise will be INR 146 crore, which will further increase to INR 151 crore in 2026 and INR 157 crore in 2027.