The 2022 edition of the Indian Premier League is expected to get bigger with the inclusion of two new franchises. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has already announced that there will be a mega auction for the upcoming season which will give a fair opportunity to the new franchises to build their squads. According to a report in Cricbuzz, the existing eight franchises will be allowed to make four retentions before the mega auction.
The report stated that an informal discussion took place between the BCCI and the franchise representatives during the business end of IPL 2021 where they made a decision on the number of player retentions for the next season.
All franchises will get a player purse of INR 90 crore which is expected to increase in the subsequent two years to INR 95 crore and INR 100 crore. Meanwhile, if the existing franchise decides to retain their players then their player purse will get deducted.
The report further claims that the BCCI has informed that the existing team owners that the new franchises will be allowed to pick a couple of big players outside the auction. With the availably of retaining four players, BCCI may not allow the RTM (Right to Match) option in the upcoming auction.
The Indian cricket board has not made any official announcement on the retention policy till now. It is expected that the BCCI will make a formal confirmation after the sale of two new franchises.
It has been learnt that major business houses such as Kotak Group, Aurobindo Pharma, Torrent Pharma, RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, Birla Group and Adani Group are interested in joining the IPL bandwagon, which is an eight-team affair as of now.
According to several reports, premier league giants Manchester United owners The Glazers Family has displayed their interest in bidding for the new IPL franchise.
Meanwhile, news agency ANI reported that interest from Glazer’s actually played a key role in Board delaying the deadline for ITT. “Well yes, it is true that they have shown interest and that may be one of the reasons why the dateline was extended by the BCCI. IPL is not just restricted to India, it is a global entity now," the source pointed.
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