On July 31, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) held a meeting with the owners of the 10 IPL franchises to discuss the upcoming mega auction. Various topics, including the retention policy, RTM cards, and the mega auction schedule, were discussed at BCCI headquarters. According to reports, some franchise owners were also involved in arguments over the impact player rule. Meanwhile, Sunrisers Hyderabad owner Kavya Maran also put her demands on the table.
Kavya Maran’s Demands to BCCI for IPL 2025 Retention
According to ESPNcricinfo, Kavya Maran wants the BCCI to allow franchises to retain at least seven players. Maran doesn’t want to lose the team’s strength, and there will be hard decisions to make if the BCCI allows only four players to be retained. Travis Head, Pat Cummins, Abhishek Sharma, Heinrich Klaasen, Aiden Markram, and Washington Sundar are among the players Sunrisers don’t want to lose.
Maran’s demands also include no restriction on the number of foreign players retained, as her team’s main strength comes from overseas players. She also requested the BCCI to allow franchises to discuss retention with their players and let them ask the players who are ready to be retained through the RTM card in the auction.
Kavya Maran is also pushing for a historic change by demanding a mega auction every five years instead of every three. This would allow SRH and other franchises to maintain a stable squad for a longer period. Sunrisers Hyderabad have assembled their dream team and aim to keep it together for the foreseeable future. Last season, their batting line-up wreaked havoc, breaking several records, and the team finished as runners-up.
In the meeting, SRH boss Kavya Maran also raised her concerns about overseas players who pull out of the league at the last minute. It frustrates franchises when players withdraw after the auction, as it disrupts team balance for the coming season. Maran proposed that the BCCI should ban such players.
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“After being selected in the auction, if a player doesn’t come to play the season for any reason apart from injury, he should be banned. Franchises put in a lot of effort into the auction to form their combinations. If a player goes for a low amount in the auction and subsequently doesn’t turn up, it affects the combination and balance of the side. There have been many instances of overseas players not showing up for this reason,” Kavya Maran was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.