The retention lists for all 10 teams participating in the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season have been released. South African cricketer Heinrich Klaasen emerged as the most expensive retained player in the history of IPL after being picked by Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) for a whopping Rs 23 crores. This amount surpasses the retention fees of even star players like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. In fact, only three players in the entire IPL 2025 retentions received a retention fee of Rs20 crores or more. Let's have a look at the list:
According to the IPL retention rules, there was a cap of 18 crores on the maximum amount a team could spend to retain a player. However, this was merely the minimum threshold set by the BCCI. Franchises had the flexibility to offer a higher amount if they desired to retain a particular player.
Players to be retained for over Rs 20 crore amount
While Heinrich Klaasen topped the charts with a whopping 23 crore retention fee, Royal Challengers Bangalore retained Virat Kohli for a massive amount of Rs 21 crores. Similarly, Lucknow Super Giants kept faith in Nicholas Pooran, offering him a 21-crore contract. These three players are the only ones to have secured a retention fee exceeding 20 crores.
What does the rule say?
If a franchise offers a player more than the stipulated bracket amount (for instance, Hyderabad offered Klaasen 23 crores, exceeding the 18-crore bracket), their purse will be reduced by the actual amount paid (23 crores in this case). Conversely, if a franchise offers less than the bracket amount, only the bracket amount will be deducted from their purse. This is precisely what Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Lucknow did while retaining their players.
The recently updated IPL guidelines have introduced a new criterion for classifying players as uncapped. An Indian player who has not represented the national team or held a BCCI central contract in the past five years will now be considered uncapped. This change presented a strategic advantage for teams, particularly for the five-time champions, Chennai Super Kings, through which they retained their iconic captain MS Dhoni, as an uncapped player for a significantly reduced fee of just Rs 4 crores in the IPL 2025 retention.
