Two owners wanted IPL auctions in England, majority reject it

Two IPL team owners floated the idea of having next edition’s players’ auction in England but the suggestion could not find favour with the majority of the franchises during a meeting with the BCCI in Mumbai.

“Yes, there were discussions whether we could shift this year’s auction abroad. A couple of franchise owners suggested England as this will be a big auction with most players back in the pool. However majority of the members want it to be held in India,” a senior BCCI official said.

Rajasthan Royals have made a suggestion to do away with retention policy as well as Right to Match (RTM) while Kings XI Punjab wanted the retention policy to stay at two players.

Most of the other teams wanted anything between 3 to 5 (including retention and Right To Match) while salary cap will be raised from Rs 60 crore to Rs 75 crore.

It was after a long time that majority of the owners turned up for a discussion over lunch with the IPL governing council members.

“The meeting was well attended. Delhi Daredevils owner GM Rao, Mumbai Indians’ Akash Ambani, Kolkata Knight Riders’ Shah Rukh Khan and Jay Mehta, Kings XI Punjab’s Mohit Burman and Ness Wadia were present. Rajasthan Royals was represented by Manoj Badale while CSK’s representative John George,” the official informed.

IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla, however, did not divulge any information after the meeting got over.

“The meeting went off well. The idea was to invite actual team owners and solicit their views now that 10 years have concluded. Lot of things like retention, salary cap, squad strength were discussed. Majority of the owners want player retention. I think we will be able to finalise the details in a fortnight,” Shukla said.