Retired players in uncapped category? IPL mulls retention rule change

NewsMost franchises agree that retired India players should be allowed to lower their base price

MS Dhoni has not played international cricket since the 2019 ODI World Cup  •  PTI

Should a cricketer who is retired for five years be considered at par with an uncapped player at IPL auctions? The question came up during a meeting between the IPL and owners of the ten franchises on Wednesday, which was convened to discuss retention rules ahead of the 2025 auction.

The question was brought up by the IPL while discussing the broader point related to uncapped players. As such, a rule that allowed exactly that – for players who had retired from international cricket for at least five years to be considered uncapped – was in place from 2008, the first season of the IPL. But it had never been put to use, and was scrapped in 2021. ESPNcricinfo has learned that when the suggestion was made on Wednesday, more than one franchise objected.

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) owner Kavya Maran is understood to have said that allowing a retired player to be retained as an uncapped player would be “disrespecting” the individual as well as their value, which could be much more at an auction. She said it would set a “wrong precedent” if an uncapped player were to be paid more than the former international (retained as an uncapped player). She suggested that the player in question be part of the auction, where the market would determine the price.

At least one other franchise rep also expressed their reservations, regardless of the number of years the player had been out of international cricket.

On Thursday, ESPNcricinfo had erroneously reported that the suggestion had come not from the IPL but from CSK, who could then use the rule to retain MS Dhoni, who retired from international cricket on August 15, 2020. Ahead of the following mega auction, before IPL 2022, 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 – or not has been doing the rounds 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 finalised before taking a decision 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.

The suggestion is understood to have come from the IPL chief operating officer Hemang Amin, whose view was that a lower base price would give such players a greater chance of getting bought at the auction.

A franchise head said that capped Indians who had not played internationals for several years were being forced to enter the auction at higher base prices and were therefore often going unsold despite going under the hammer more than once.

The article was updated with corrections at 12.20pm GMT on August 2, 2024.

Nagraj Gollapudi is news editor at ESPNcricinfo