The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced a few new changes to the player retention policy for the 2025 season of the IPL, and the uncapped player rule has been brought back. This rule means Indian players who have not played international cricket for five years or more or those players who do not have a central contract can be categorised as uncapped.
This change is viewed as a tactical decision to enable the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to retain cricketing icon Mahendra Singh Dhoni for a fee of Rs 4 crore, which will help the team in the future mega auction.
Dhoni, who represented India in the last in the 2019 ODI World Cup, has retired from international cricket but continues to be a key player in the IPL. CSK is likely to retain him in order to strengthen its competitive advantage, as well as retain other important players. Ex cricketer Mohammad Kaif said that such rules can be made for Dhoni as he is a legend of the game and has a huge impact on the IPL.
Kaif said, “We will get to see MS Dhoni playing again… The rules will keep getting changed to let MS Dhoni play if he wants to play.” This feeling is in line with the general opinion of fans and analysts on the subject of Dhoni’s legacy for CSK and IPL.
He further said, “Everyone knows the rule has been changed because of him. And why not? Dhoni is that sort of player.”
Apart from the uncapped player rule, BCCI has put conditions that each franchise can retain a maximum of six players, which can be a maximum of five capped players and one uncapped player. The auction purse has also been raised to Rs 120 crore, and new match fees have been introduced at Rs 7.5 lakh per player.
These strategic changes have been made to restructure the teams, and as excitement grows for the IPL 2025 mega auction, these changes are expected to improve the balance of the teams in the league.
