Many franchises against mega auction for next year’s IPL

In a meeting attended by all ten franchise owners with Indian Premier League officials at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) headquarters in Mumbai on Wednesday, many batted for the mega auctions to be done away with altogether.

Those in favour of the mega auction are known to have varied opinions on whether there should be more than four retentions at this year's auction. "Some wanted as many as 8 retentions. We are not in that camp. I am surprised there is a debate if there should be an auction. It is what makes the IPL what it is," Parth Jindal, co-owner of Delhi Capitals, told reporters.

Kolkata Knight Riders owner Shah Rukh Khan is known to have spoken in the meeting calling for there to be no mega auction, a position held by the franchise in the past too. At this juncture, Punjab Kings co-owner Ness Wadia is known to have countered him. "It was a good legal debate between the two," an official at the meeting said.

The other debate revolved around the continuation of the Impact Player rule. While Jindal said they would want it done away with to help Indian cricket have more all-rounders, many other franchises are happy with the rule.

Kiran Kumar Grandhi and Jindal of Delhi Capitals, Sanjiv Goenka of Lucknow Super Giants, Rupa Gurunath of Chennai Super Kings, Kavya Maran of Sunrisers Hyderabad, Manoj Badale of Rajasthan Royals and Prathmesh Mishra of Royal Challengers Bengaluru attended the meet. The owners of Mumbai Indians joined via video conference.

"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," BCCI said in a statement.