Ind T20 League owners meet postponed

The meeting of the Indian T20 League franchise owners has been put off. Slated to be held on April 16 at Ahmedabad but the Indian Cricket Board as per multiple sources has postponed the meeting.  The agenda of the meet was to discuss the Ind T20 League programme. A new date has not been finalised even though a few franchises have been taking a strong stance against the increase in the number of retentions. 

The meeting was to talk over the way forward for the Ind T20 League from the following year where a mega auction would come into effect. The Indian Cricket Board top officials wanted to elect the brains of the owners on the number of retentions to be allowed and the size of the player purse. Discussions have been held over increasing the number of retentions from the existing four and expanding the player purse significantly from the current cap of 100 crore.  

Although, there is a stance that the retention should be limited to one and the franchises should be provided with more Right to Match (RTM) options, a formula, it has been argued, will be as per the market value and transparency. The argument has been that retention could possibly lead to substitute and convert payments to the players. 

The RTM method would give franchises the opportunity to obtain their existing players at a price set during the live auction. On the flipside RTM method would lead to the possibility of several franchises swelling a player’s bidding price so that the interested franchise will have to pay extra money. But they will also be at the risk of getting the player at the increased cost  later. While the talks have been for nearly eight retentions, it has been argued that there should be just retention and various RTM options. The Indian Cricket Board, obviously, has its own outlook on the way the Ind T20 League should be conducted and has not exactly made its stand. 

The Indian Cricket Board/Ind T20 League officials and the franchise promoters meeting was supposed to take place on the sidelines of an Ind T20 League fixture between Gujarat (GUJ) and Delhi (DEL) in Ahmedabad. But that game has not been officially postponed by a day, due to security concerns at the Eden Gardens. The rejig was important considering the Rama Navami festivities in the ‘City of Joy’ and the city policy there conveyed security issues.