Indian Premier League's franchises will have the flexibility to allocate the capped retention pot of 75 crore among five capped players as they see fit ahead of IPL 2025 mega auction, as per an ESPNCricinfo report.
The IPL 2025 retention slabs are structured as follows:
Player No. 1 will receive Rs 18 crore, Player No. 2 will receive Rs 14 crore, Player No. 3 will receive Rs 11 crore, Player No. 4 will receive Rs 18 crore, and Player No. 5 will receive Rs 14 crore.
Franchises given freedom to allocate Rs 75 crore retention budget among their players as per their wish
However, franchises have complete flexibility to allocate the 75 crore retention budget among their players as per their wish. While franchises can pay players any amount within these limits, any excess expenditure will be deducted from their auction purse.
As per Cricbuzz, The retention rule for IPL 2025 states that the total amount retained, rather than the individual player fees, will be deducted from the team's auction purse. In this case, the deduction will be 75 crore, regardless of the amounts paid to the five retained players. If the total amount exceeds 75 crore, the actual amount will be deducted. If it's less than 75 crore, 75 crore will be deducted.
"Retention deduction of overall amount instead of fee per player, in this case of 75 Crs irrespective of what amount is paid to 5 players. If the total amount exceeds 75 Crs, then the actual amount is to be deducted. In case the amount is less than 75 Crs then 75 Crs to be deducted," IPL retention rule states, as quoted by Cricbuzz.
Sunrisers Hyderabad is reported to be retaining Heinrich Klaasen, Pat Cummins, Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, and Nitish Kumar Reddy for IPL 2025. This demonstrates the franchises' flexibility in using their retention budget.
SRH to shell out Rs 23 cr to retain Heinrich Klaasen?
As per ESPNCricinfo, SRH will spend Rs 23 crore on Heinrich Klaasen to retain him ahead of IPL 2025 auction, which is 5 crore more than the stipulated retention amount of INR 18 crore for the first player. Klaasen has been an exceptional performer for the team since joining, scoring nearly 1,000 runs in 35 IPL matches. In IPL 2024, he amassed 479 runs in 15 innings at a strike rate of 171.07.
Pat Cummins is set to be the second retention for Sunrisers Hyderabad, retained at INR 18 crore. The third retention will be Indian all-rounder Abhishek Sharma, who will remain with the team at INR 14 crore.
Travis Head is also expected to remain with Sunrisers Hyderabad. Nitish Kumar Reddy, from Visakhapatnam, who recently earned his India cap, will also be retained. All five players were instrumental in Sunrisers Hyderabad's success last year. Captain Cummins took 18 wickets, while Abhishek scored 484 runs in 16 games with a strike rate of over 200. Head was the team's leading run-scorer and third overall in the orange cap race.
Now, it will be interesting to see whether other franchises follow the SRH's template of retaining players at INR 23 crore, 18 crore, and 14 crore or not.
