The original eight franchises will be able to retain four players each ahead of the mega auction for the 2022 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), while the two new teams will get a chance to pick three players each before going into the auction from the rest of the pool of unretained players.
In a report by ESPN Cricinfo, the teams are likely to get a purse of INR 90 crore and they will have an option of retaining three Indian and one overseas player or two Indian and two overseas players with no option of RTM (right-to-match) cards this time.
The IPL in informal discussions with the franchises has communicated the rules while saying that the three Indian players can all be capped, all uncapped or a mix of both. On the other hand, for the new teams, there has to be a combination of two Indian players and one overseas.
The salary caps for each retained player is still unknown, which will also become a talking point both for the franchise and the player in particular as the latter will have an option of going into the auction if he wants to play with a new team or has an expectation of getting a better paycheck.
For the two new teams, a draft system is likely to be in place for the six players to be picked before the start of the auction, which was the case in 2016 when Gujarat Lions and Rising Pune Supergiants had to pick players from the pool of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals.
The auction is likely to be held by the end of the year, while the retentions will most likely be announced by the end of November.
