The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) issued a plain statement hours after reports of a rift between franchises rocked the IPL 2025 meeting on Wednesday. The owners of all 10 franchises met with BCCI officials at its headquarters in Mumbai to discuss various matters related to the IPL, mainly player retentions and the size of the auction. Some team owners even argued whether an auction was needed at all.
However, a consensus could not be reached as IPL team owners were divided on player retention and auction size. Some franchises, like the Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad, wanted eight to ten retentions, while others, like the Delhi Capitals, wanted to stick to the original mega auction format, allowing teams to create a new pool of players every three years.
There was a heated debate between KKR owner Shah Rukh Khan and PBKS owner Ness Wadia on whether to have a mega auction or not.
After all this, BCCI secretary Jay Shah issued a statement, claiming “an organized dialogue” took place between the owners.
“The Board of Control for Cricket in India on Wednesday organized a constructive dialogue with the owners of the 10 franchises on various subjects pertaining to the upcoming season of the IPL,” he said in a release.
The franchise owners tabled feedback on player regulations and other commercial aspects, including central merchandising, licensing, and gaming. The BCCI will now take these recommendations to the IPL Governing Council for further deliberation and evaluation before formulating the IPL player regulations,” Shah added in the release.
Teams are not likely to be allowed to retain more than five players, with one Right to Match (RTM) card. The RTM card gives a franchise the opportunity to match the final bid of a player from their squad of the previous season.
The BCCI secretary later confirmed to the media that the board will be taking its decisions soon on all the points that were discussed.
Among the team owners or co-owners who attended the meeting were Shah Rukh Khan from Kolkata Knight Riders, Kavya Maran from Sunrisers Hyderabad, Ness Wadia from Punjab Kings, Sanjiv Goenka with his son Shashwat from Lucknow Super Giants, KK Grand and Parth Jindal from Delhi Capitals.
Manoj Badale and Ranjit Barthakur from Rajasthan Royals, Prathamesh Mishra from Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Kasi Viswanathan and Rupa Gurunath from Chennai Super Kings, Amit Soni from Gujarat Titans while Mumbai Indians’ owners attended it online.
‘No real outcome,’ says DC co-owner Parth Jindal
Parth Jindal, the director of JSW Sports which owns the Delhi Capitals, said there was “no real outcome” from the meeting as the teams looked to stick to their opinions on all the matters discussed.
“No real outcome. It was just to hear all the different perspectives from all the owners and the BCCI has heard us and now they will give us all the rules. Hopefully, by the end of August we will get to know the rules for the next cycle,” Jindal told the reporters at the BCCI headquarters. Jindal confirmed there was no consensus among the teams in the context of the number of players they wanted to retain ahead of the mega auction.
“Nothing (on the consensus). Some people want eight to ten, some people want four, some people want six… it’s all up in the air,” he replied.
