The IPL Mega auction will be conducted ahead of the 2025 IPL season. The last mega auction took place in 2022, and with the three-season cycle complete, the majority of the players will be back on the auction pool, acting as a fresh start for all the franchises eyeing the prestigious IPL trophy.
One of the interesting aspects of the mega auction is the right-to-match card better known as the RTM card. The RTM card gives a franchise a clear advantage ahead of others to get a player back that they could not retain through the salary slab deduction.
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How does the RTM Card work?
Whenever during an auction a player is sold to a certain franchise, the older franchise that the player played for can use the RTM card to trump the deal and get the player back to the older franchise by matching the bid amount.
The older franchise can simply take the player back by matching the bid of the highest bidder as well as the same salary. The RTM card has been previously put to use in the 2014 and 2018 IPL mega auction.
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However, no RTM cards were present for the 2022 mega auction since two new teams in Gujarat Titans (GT) and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), wanting a bigger pool of players to select from. A maximum of four retentions was allowed per team, which included either three Indian and one overseas player or two Indian and two overseas players.
The current structure of the IPL mega auction allows franchises to have three retentions and one RTM option. However, it has been recently reported by various media outlets that franchises have demanded for a change in structure, suggesting an increase in retention and RTM options in the 2025 IPL mega auction.
IPL Franchisees suggest for an increase in RTM options
Unlike the previous seasons, no new team will be added in the 2025 IPL, and the same ten teams that have featured in the 2024 IPL will start a new race for the title in 2025.
This has prompted several franchises to demand an increase in retention options as compared to the previous format. The franchises have prompted the BCCI to let them retain between four to six players and increase the RTM options to eight, according to ESPNcricinfo.
One such franchise CEO has even suggested letting the team retain just one significant player according to the deduction in the salary slab, and let others be bought through RTM options. This would give a fair estimation of a player’s price in the market and would also result in any indifferences between players due to monetary issues.
Another suggestion from the franchises is to conduct the mega auction once every five years, instead of the current three-season cycle.
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