Five players can be retained by franchise: IPL Governing Council

New Delhi: IPL franchises will be allowed to retain five cricketers during the 2014 Indian Premier League auction to be held on February 12 with the option of buying back a limited number of players through the newly introduced 'right to match' provision.

After a series of discussions, the IPL Governing Council today came up with a number of regulations related to Players' Contracts, Squad Compositions and the Retention of Players in advance for the 2014 Auction.

"The Pepsi IPL 2014 Player Auction will be held on 12 February, and if necessary, 13 February 2014. The venue of the auction will be announced soon," BCCI said in a release.

"A franchise may sign up to a maximum of 5 players (either capped or uncapped, no more than four of whom may be capped Indians) who were in its squad in 2013, including those who were unavailable during the season and those who were taken as temporary replacements."

Regarding the Salary cap, the Governing Council said the franchises will be charged Rs 12.5 crore, Rs 9.5 crore, Rs 7.5 crore, Rs 5.5 crore and Rs 4 crore respectively for the first, second, third, fourth and fifth capped players retained and it would be "irrespective of the IPL league fee that is agreed between the two parties and which is set out in the player contract."

Apart from the cricketers who are retained in advance, all other players will have to enter the 2014 player auction process if they want to play in the IPL in 2014, the release said.

According to the new regulations, the format of the 2014 Player Auction will be broadly similar to last year but each franchise will have a number of 'rights to match' which it may exercise during the course of the auction for those players who were in its squad in 2013.

"The number of 'rights to match' available to a franchise will depend on the number of players that the franchise retained in advance," the release said.If the number of players retained by a franchise prior to the auction is five, four or three then the number of 'rights to match' in the auction will be one.

But if the number of players retained is two, one and zero then the number of 'rights to match' for the frachise will be two, two and three respectively, the release said.

According to the regulation, "if the franchise chooses to exercise the 'right to match', the franchise will take the player for the amount of the final bid that had been made in the Player Auction, no further bidding by any other franchises is possible and franchises may take no more than four capped Indian players via a combination of retention prior to the auction and the 'right to match'."

Regarding Squad Composition, the governing council said: "Each squad must include no less than 16 and no more than 27 players, of which up to 9 may be overseas players and no more than 4 overseas players in the XI for any match."

Though there is "no minimum quota for catchment area players", the governing council said, "Under 19 players must have played either First Class or List A before signing for IPL."

According to the Player Contract regulations, cricketers with one year term with a franchise will have the option to extend for either one or two additional years but the option must be exercised on or before December 15 in each year.

"IPL league fee for all players to be denominated in Indian rupees, Overseas players to be paid in the currency of their choice at the prevailing exchange rate on either the actual date of payment or contract due date, whichever is beneficial to the player, IPL league fee to exclude payment for playing in CLT20 but to include up to 6 approved friendly matches and the additional fee for playing in CLT20 to be an amount equal to 10 per cent of the IPL league fee," the release said.