Should a cricketer who has retired for five years be considered at par with an uncapped player at IPL auctions? This intriguing question came up during a meeting between the IPL and the owners of the ten franchises on Wednesday, convened to discuss retention rules ahead of the 2025 auction.
The IPL raised this question while discussing broader points related to uncapped players. Interestingly, a rule allowing retired players from international cricket for at least five years to be considered uncapped was in place from the IPL’s first season in 2008. However, it was never put to use and was scrapped in 2021. ESPNcricinfo has learned that when this suggestion was made on Wednesday, more than one franchise objected.
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) owner Kavya Maran expressed concerns, stating that allowing a retired player to be retained as an uncapped player would be “disrespecting” the individual and their value, which could be much higher at an auction. She suggested that the player in question be part of the auction, where the market would determine their price. At least one other franchise representative also voiced reservations, regardless of how many years the player had been out of international cricket.
On Thursday, ESPNcricinfo erroneously reported that the suggestion had come from CSK, who could then use the rule to retain MS Dhoni, who retired from international cricket on August 15, 2020. Ahead of the 2022 mega auction, Dhoni was the second player after Ravindra Jadeja on CSK’s list of retentions, at the cost of INR 12 crore. An uncapped player retained that year cost the concerned team INR 4 crore.
The question of whether Dhoni, 43, will continue to play IPL cricket – the only tournament he plays – has been circulating for the last few seasons. After undergoing knee surgery in 2023, he handed over the CSK captaincy to Ruturaj Gaikwad ahead of the 2024 season and played a limited role with the bat, coming in late in the innings as a boundary-hitter. More recently, at an event, Dhoni said he and CSK would wait for the player retention rules to be finalized before deciding on his future as a player.
Retired India Players Might Be Able to Lower Base Price The franchises were, however, unanimous in agreeing that Indian players who had not played international cricket for five years should be allowed to lower their base prices at the auction. Currently, INR 50 lakh is the lowest base price set by the IPL for capped India players.
This suggestion is understood to have come from the IPL chief operating officer Hemang Amin, who believed that a lower base price would give such players a greater chance of getting bought at the auction. A franchise head mentioned that capped Indians who had not played internationals for several years were being forced to enter the auction at higher base prices and were often going unsold despite going under the hammer more than once.
