IPL announces landmark retention and auction rules for 2025 season: Explained

The Indian Premier League Governing Council announced the Player regulations for the 2025 season as several landmark decisions were taken for the next three editions of the T20 extravaganza.

In Short

• Teams can retain a maximum of 6 players
• Maximum of five capped players and two uncapped players can be retained
• Impact Player Rule to continue till 2027

The Indian Premier League (IPL) Governing Council released the new player regulations for the upcoming mega auction ahead of the IPL 2025 on Saturday, September 28. There were several players major announcements made for the blockbuster season such as the player retention limits, increasing of the team’s purse value and the introduction of new match fees for every game.

Strict rules were also formed for the unplanned pullouts of the foreign players ahead of the season and the uncapped players rule was also re-introduced which makes any turns any India player not having a central contract into an uncapped player. Here’s the complete list of the new player regulations for the IPL 2025:

1. The IPL franchises can retain a total of 6 players from their existing squad. This can be either via retention or by using the Right to Match (RTM) option.

2. It is at the discretion of the IPL franchise to choose their combination for Retentions and RTMs. The 6 retentions / RTM’s can have a maximum of 5 capped players (Indian & Overseas) and a maximum of 2 uncapped players.

3. The auction purse for the franchises has been set at INR 120 Crore for IPL 2025. The total salary cap will now consist of auction purse, incremental performance pay and match fees. Previously in 2024, the total salary cap (auction purse + incremental performance pay) was Rs. 110 Crs which will now be Rs. 146 Crs (2025), Rs. 151 Crs (2026) and Rs. 157 Crs (2027).

4. A match fee has been introduced for the first time in the history of IPL. Each Playing member (Including the Impact Player) will get a match fee of INR 7.5 Lakhs per match. This will be in addition to his contracted amount.

5. Any Overseas Player will have to register for the Big Auction. In case the overseas player doesn't register, then he will be ineligible to register in the following year’s player auction.

6. Any player who registers in the player auction and after getting picked at the auction, makes himself unavailable before the start of the season, will get banned from participating in the tournament and player auction for 2 Seasons.

7. A capped Indian player will become uncapped, if the player has in the last five calendar years preceding the year in which the relevant Season is held, not played in the starting XI in International Cricket (Test match, ODI, Twenty20 International) or does not have a Central Contract with BCCI. This will be applicable for Indian Players only.

8. The Impact Player Regulation will continue for the 2025 to 2027 cycle.