At month’s end, BCCI will meet with IPL owners to discuss salary caps and player retention

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the proprietors of the much-anticipated Indian Premier League (IPL) will meet at the end of this month. IPL insiders say that the BCCI has requested that the owners be available for a meeting, most likely on July 30 or 31, but the precise date is still pending.

It is anticipated that the meeting will be held at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai. Usually, these gatherings take place at a five-star hotel, but the BCCI would like to extend an invitation to the owners to visit their recently renovated headquarters located within the Wankhede Stadium complex.

The primary topic of discussion at the meeting will be player retention. Divergent opinions exist on the maximum number of retentions that a franchise may have. Some contend that since the majority of franchises have been in operation for more than 17 years, consistency is crucial and that the maximum number of retentions that can be allowed is eight. It’s being proposed that they should organise their teams around players who are viewed as essential to the franchise’s image in order to increase fan engagement and brand promotion.

On the other hand, certain franchises have informed the BCCI that there shouldn’t be a lot of retentions, despite reasons to the contrary.

The inclusion of a Right to Match (RTM) option in the mega-auction is another topic of discussion. As recently revealed, the BCCI has solicited franchise opinions on important matters. Earlier this month, IPL CEO Hemang Amin held meetings with representatives of the teams, either in person at their various city headquarters or over the phone at the BCCI office.

The wage cap, which is anticipated to be approximately INR 120 crore in the first year of the upcoming three-year cycle, will also be discussed. Then, it might also be discussed how valuable each player’s retention is. The top retention’s compensation used to be between 16 and 17 percent of the salary cap, or INR 15 crore out of a total salary cap of INR 90 crore.

The top kept player’s wage this time around may be little more than INR 20 crore if the same methodology is applied. But for now, this is still just conjecture. The methodology used to calculate the retained players’ salaries is anticipated to be provided by the BCCI.