R Ashwin warns about return of IPL’s retention rule ahead of 2025 mega auctions: ‘No fair value for players’

Rajasthan Royals spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has hit out at the return of the IPL's Right to Match (RTM) rule, which allows franchises to reclaim players they released last year if they match the highest bidder in the auctions. Ashwin says the RTM rule is very unfair to the players and its reintroduction will result in players being left virtually empty-handed.

BCCI recently held a dialogue with the owners of all ten IPL franchises to seek their views on various issues, including IPL player regulations. According to ESPN Cricinfo, the key points of discussion during the meeting were holding a mega auction every 5 years instead of 3, reintroduction of the Right to Match (RTM) rule at all auctions, availability/shortage of overseas players and limiting the total number of retentions.

Ashwin sounded alarm bells about the possible reintroduction of the Right to Match rule in a video posted on his YouTube channel. The veteran offie stated, “There is no rule more unfair for a player than RTM. Because how has the RTM rule been so far? For example, there is a player called X. He is on a team called, let us say, Sunrisers. His current value is around ₹five-six crores. He has gone into the auction. Now say Sunrisers want to buy the player back. So, the Sunrisers will bid for the player at a base price of 2 crore,”

“Then, let us say, KKR and the Mumbai Indians are bidding for the player. The bid goes up to 6 crores and finally, they say, 'The player is sold to the Mumbai Indians for 6 crores.' So, with RTM, the Sunrisers will then bid for and take the player at 6 crores. The problem here is that Sunrisers are happy. But KKR and MI are unhappy. The only person (party) happy is Sunrisers. Because, in the beginning, they gave attendance bid at base price,” Ashwin added

While diving deep into the problem with RTM rule, Ashwin said, "The problem with RTM is that it is not fair value for the player. So, if you give three RTMs [to each team], the players will only go virtually empty-handed. Already, they do not get fair value in the auction,"

The right-to-match rule was removed ahead of 2021 mega auctions in order to provide two new franchises - Lucknow Super Giants and Gujarat Titans (GT)- more options to form the crux of their teams.