Indian Premier League (IPL) authorities to meet franchises today

Mumbai: The status of Impact player rule, possibility of raising number of uncapped players in each Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise's retention list are key aspects featured on agenda of a meeting between the league's top authorities and all the ten franchises on Wednesday.

As per ESPNCricinfo, this meeting will be behind the closed doors and will be taking place in Mumbai at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) headquarters. The member of ownership teams will be representing each franchise.

Other significant points which will be up for discussion are: Having mega auction every five years instead of three, the way it is right now, reinstating the right-to-match (RTM) card option at auctions, availability/shortage of overseas players and a limit on total number of retentions.

All these points have been framed by the league after its CEO, Hemang Amin, met various franchises over the last few months in order to get some feedback ahead of the mega auction for next year's season, as per ESPNCricinfo.

During the previous IPL season this year, there were eight 250-plus totals, including the total of 287 runs posted by Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), the highest-ever in league's history. Various critics, players and experts expressed their dissatisfaction with the Impact Player rule, blaming it for such unprecedented six-hitting and for stunting the growth of all-rounders as team's often chose to use a pure batter/bowler through this role instead of an all-rounder.

This rule was introduced back in 2023 season and allows players to pick an extra specialist batter/bowler depending on the situation. Nine of the ten highest total in league's history have come after this rule's introduction, highlighting the freedom, power and flexibility it adds to teams.

Though the rule was meant to expose more Indian, especially uncapped players, it was criticised by players and experts alike this season, with Indian skipper Rohit Sharma even expressing that he was not a big fan of the rule since it did not allow the development of all-rounders, a vital aspect in T20Is for India.

As per ESPNCricinfo, some franchises share this view and want the rule to be scrapped.

Coming to uncapped player retentions, the IPL franchises were allowed to retain a maximum of two uncapped Indians ahead of 2022 mega auction and the two new teams- Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants could have one each.

As uncapped players put in more consistent performances, IPL franchises also devoted more and more resources for their scouting and development. A change could now be coming as franchises have urged the league's CEO to create a special allowance within main retention pool for uncapped players or increase the number of RTM cards, through which teams can automatically get the player which represented them in the previous season if they match the highest bid placed by a franchise.

During the discussions, it was also understood that the IPL told the teams to incentivise their players financially, considering the teams are earning more than ever. This could be because the league wants to better the salary of a player brought at his base price during an auction, was retained at the same price even though his stature increased with his performances.(ANI).

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