IPL 2018: All you need to know about Right to Match cards

The cricket world is set abuzz with the discussions about IPL auctions. While the player retention is a known policy to many fans, the questions are arising over the Right to Match cards. The RTM is a unique way of retaining the players once the player is already released from the squad. The following post will clearly illustrate how a franchise can use their Right to Match cards.

Before heading into the RTM policies, it is important to know about the rules for the player retentions. There are three key rules that the teams have to keep in mind before retaining the players. Firstly, they can retain a maximum of three capped Indian players. Secondly, they can retain a maximum of two overseas players. Thirdly, they can retain a maximum of two uncapped Indian players.

In addition to this, if the franchise retains three players, they will have to pay INR 15, 11, and 7 respectively for them. For two retained players, they will have to pay INR 12.5 and 8 crore respectively. For only one player retained, the franchise will have to pay INR 8 crore. For the uncapped players, the teams will only have to shell out INR 3 crore for every player retained.

RTM explained in detail

Now, coming to the Right to Match cards, this provision can be used by the teams only on the day of the auctions. In essence, if there is a certain player who played for a Team A in previous season, and is bought by team B in the auctions, then Team A can use their RTM to get back the player on their roster by paying the amount of money that Team B was ready to shell out on that player. Each team gets 3 RTM cards.

For example, consider that Chris Gayle is not retained by Royal Challengers Bangalore and is in the auction pool. Now, say, that Mumbai Indians buy Chris Gayle at the auctions for INR 7 crore. Then, RCB can use their RTM to get back the services of Chris Gayle by paying INR 7 crore for Gayle.

Retentions and other details you need to know

The IPL 2018 has started to create a buzz already with the auctions being round the corner. Now, in a recent development, the much-awaited rules for the player retention policies have been announced. There was a lot of confusion over whether the franchises would get to retain players or not. This had largely come to the forum of discussion since the IPL 2018 marks the comeback of Royals and the Chennai Super Kings.

There has been a lot of brouhahas over which players would these sides retain since they had not been a part of the IPL roster last year. Some owners were in the favour of an all open pool, but there were a few who wanted to retain the players. Another group of big heads wanted to have the Right To Match Cards available at the auction. All these above-mentioned doubts have been cleared now.

The franchises can retain a maximum of 5 players using the combination of retention or the Right to Match. The franchises may or may not retain any players at all. If they do not retain any player, they will have 3 RTMs at the auction. In any case, maximum of only 3 retentions or RTMs would be allowed.

Commenting on the salary cap for the players’ auction, the salary cap has been set to INR 80 crore for the 2018 edition. The cap extends to INR 82 crore for the 2019 season and extends further to INR 85 crore for the 2020 edition. The IPL Governing Council confirmed the same recently.

Player pool for CSK, Royals

Talking about the players that the Royals and CSK could retain or have RTM at the auctions, the returning franchises will get a player pool of players who played for them respectively in IPL 2015. Also, the players who were the part of Rising Pune Supergiant and Gujarat Lions in IPL 2017 will get into the same player pool. As mentioned earlier, 3 players can be retained at the pre-auction. This is a clear indication that MS Dhoni is likely to play for CSK again!

Minimum Auction Reserve Price

The minimum auction reserve price has also been set. The earlier reserve price of uncapped players has been escalated from INR 10, 20, and 30 lakh to INR 20, 30, and 40 lakh respectively. For the capped players, the mappings are as follows – from INR 30 lakh to INR 50 lakh; from INR 50 lakh to INR 75 lakh; base prices of INR 1 crore, 1.5 crore, and 2 crore remain the same.

Squad Size

The franchise squad size has been set to a maximum of 25 players and a minimum of 18 players. There can be utmost 8 overseas players.