New Delhi, India

Chennai Super Kings’ path for retaining their legendary player MS Dhoni in the Indian Premier League (IPL) have been given a massive boost on Saturday (Sep 28). The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has approved five retentions per side along with a Right to Match (RTM) card in the mega-auctions that could take place in the next couple of months. It is the biggest retention ever offered in history as teams prepare for a shake-up before the IPL 2025 season.

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Five retention, one RTM per side?

According to ESPNcricinfo, a reliable cricket site, the IPL governing council has approved five retentions per side along with an RTM. The five retained players will cost INR 750 million ($9mn) for IPL teams and can retain as many as six players from their current squad. There is no cap on Indian and foreign players as franchises like Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings can breathe a sigh of relief as they face complications in retaining their star names.

Teams will be given a purse of INR 1.15-1.20 billion ($13.7-14.3 million) a significant increase for franchisees to spend. This could also mean for the first time IPL’s net spend in a season could reach above INR 10 billion ($120mn).

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What is RTM?

The Right to Match (RTM) is a special provision given to a franchise that can purchase a player who was released by matching the bid to another team. For instance, if Ishan Kishan is released by Mumbai Indians and is bought by another franchise for a certain amount, Mumbai will have the right to match the bid and get Ishan back to the franchise. However, the RTM can be used only once during the mega-auctions.

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Dhoni set for another season?

Now that the policy is approved, Dhoni’s retention with CSK is set to go smoothly as they will still have four other slots to retain other big players like Ravindra Jadeja, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Maheesh Theekshana and Moeen Ali. It is a similar case for Mumbai Indians with star names like Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan and current skipper Hardik Pandya in the ranks.

With limited slots earlier it was unlikely to retain all of them, however, with amended policy all the above names could be retained without entering the mega-auctions.