IPL franchisees to approach GC for change in rules

Bangalore Royal Challengers

Seven of the ten Indian Premier League (IPL) franchisees have decided to approach the tournament’s governing council (GC) and request for a change in the new rules which were announced last Sunday. Vijay Mallya, owner of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), has been requested to take up the issue with the GCV once the Champions League gets over. The most contentious issue with the team owners seems to be the player retention rule. "Why have the retention at all? Why not just put all the players into the auction pool and bid afresh?" a franchise owner says, a reaction seconded by others including Kolkata Knight Riders’ co-owner Shah Rukh Khan. However, it is unlikely that the governing council may concede. "The rules have been amended keeping in mind that it’s fair to everybody involved. For franchises who don’t want to retain players, they go into the auction with a purse of $9m. Franchises that retain players - for instance, all four - go into the auction with just $4.5m. So who has a better spending capacity?" a senior governing council member said. "The leverage has been set for franchisees to retain just because they’ve been part of it since its inception."

However, the reality is that no franchise except for Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians is interested in retaining players. TOI has learnt even Rajasthan Royals are looking at sending Shane Warne - the captain-cum-coach who won them the inaugural IPL - into the auction list. Few franchisees even have issues with the distribution of catchment areas. Another team owner feels that allowing uncapped players who have played 75% of IPL 2010 matches to be part of auction is unfair.