Mumbai: The concept of the IPL auctions being held in England was brought up by two team owners but it couldn’t find any support from the others during a meeting with the BCCI in Mumbai.
A senior BCCI official said, “Yes, there were discussions whether we could shift this year’s auction abroad. A couple of franchise owners suggested England as this will be a big auction with most players back in the pool. However majority of the members want it to be held in India.”
The divided opinions continued to exist as Rajasthan Royals wanted to do away with the Right To Match (RTM) as well as the player retention policy while Kings XI Punjab wanted the latter to be limited to two players.
Many other teams wanted a number between three to five (which includes the RTM and retention policy) while there would also be a rise in the salary cap from ₹60 crore to ₹75 crore.
The official further revealed, “The meeting was well attended. Delhi Daredevils owner GM Rao, Mumbai Indians’ Akash Ambani, Kolkata Knight Riders’ Shah Rukh Khan and Jay Mehta, Kings XI Punjab’s Mohit Burman and Ness Wadia were present. Rajasthan Royals was represented by Manoj Badale while CSK’s representative John George.”
IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla however didn’t speak too much about the meeting after it got over.
“The meeting went off well. The idea was to invite actual team owners and solicit their views now that 10 years have concluded. Lot of things like retention, salary cap, squad strength were discussed. Majority of the owners want player retention. I think we will be able to finalise the details in a fortnight,” he said.