THE BCCI and the IPL Governing Council are mulling over continuing with the cash-rich league’s retention policy, which will provide all eight franchises the 'right to preference' over their respective players.
The IPL 2018 auction is tentatively scheduled to be held in February, next year. As reported by TOI, a senior official working close to the development, revealed,
"The retention policy would be there in all possibility. This is what the majority of franchises want. The only issue we need to thrash out is the number of players who can be retained. We need to work out whether it would be three or five players. For this very purpose, we have called the meeting of franchise owners on November 21 in Mumbai."
The official added that the players will be given an option to continue with the respective franchise as well as to join the auction pool.
"The players would be given the option to decide over continuing with respective franchises or joining the auction pool. It will depend solely on them. Even if a franchise decides to open up its purse for a particular player, it can't do so against his wishes. If a player has made up his mind to go under the hammer, no one can stop him. He will stay back only if he's satisfied with the new offer his franchise is making."
Speaking about the now-defunct Gujarat Lions and Rising Pune Supergiants, the official divulged that Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings, the two franchises who are set to make return in 2018, will have the first ‘right to preference’ over the likes of MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ajinkya Rahane.
"The first preference would always remain with RR and CSK. The IPL GC had been clear about it from the beginning. But if these players want to go to the auction pool, then these two franchises can't do anything about it."