IPL: Auction or Retention?
There is a lot of talk amongst franchises and players about retention of individuals ahead of the next edition of the IPL as player contracts expire at the end of the 2010 season.
Team owners remain divided over the issue of player retention for the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League. Retention would mean that franchises would be able to offer contract extensions to a particular number of players that have played for them in previous seasons, without the option of moving to another team. Sachin Tendulkar had come out in the open and said that he would like to see every team retain four domestic and foreign players respectively while the others should go back into the pool for open auction as it would give the teams something to build from.
Others like Geoff Marsh, coach of the Sahara Pune Warriors feels that the if teams are allowed to retain some players and all of them are not put up for auction, new teams will have to start at a disadvantage. Allowing franchises to retain players will place the new teams in great difficulty in fielding a competitive squad and can even impact upon the standard of the tournament. One of the franchises suggested providing the teams with two “cards” each. The cards would give the teams the first right of refusal for one Indian player and one foreign player from their team. So if the maximum bid for a player was set at $2 million, then his current franchise could use the card to bid $2 million and automatically retain him even if another franchise bids the maximum amount.
