Pro Kabaddi League Season 6: IPL-style Right to Match rule to be introduced in auctions

What's the story?

Pro Kabaddi League will soon be following in the footsteps of the Indian Premier League as it looks set to introduce the Right-to-Match card in the upcoming auctions. PKL, which will be entering its 6th season this October, has gained a massive following ever since its inception in 2014.

In case you didn't know...

Right-to-Match is a rule which allows a team to swoop in and get a player they had owned in the previous season after another team's bid is accepted. According to the rule, the team which uses this card will have to pay the final amount for which the player is sold.

For example, if U Mumba, who have not retained Anup Kumar, want to sign the former India captain during the auctions, they just need to match the franchise that has placed the highest bid, once the bidding process for the player has been completed.

The heart of the matter

The Pro Kabaddi League has decided to go the IPL way by introducing the Right-to-Match card. The rule will be known as Final Bid-to-Match in the PKL and will be used for the first time in the upcoming auction for the 6th edition of the league, Sportskeeda has learnt.

The league will host fresh auctions this year after each team revealed which players they decided to keep and let go. Some elite names such as Anup Kumar, Rahul Chaudhari, Fazel Atrachali, and Nitin Tomar were not retained by their respective sides and will be present in this year's auction.

What's next?

With the auction set to take place in the upcoming months and the retained names already decided, it will be interesting to see which superstars teams opt to buy back using this card.

Author's take

The FBM gives a team a great opportunity to bag a player at a lower price than which they would've had to retain them originally. Some great examples were already seen in this year's IPL, such as Rajasthan Royals using their RTM to buy back Ajinkya Rahane or Sunrisers Hyderabad doing the same for Shikhar Dhawan at a price of 5.2 Crores.

If used smartly, this card can turn out to be a massive advantage strategically. A particular team can take the eagerness of another team to get back a certain player and use it to deplete their funds. Mumbai Indians had to pay a whopping 8.8 crores to buy back Krunal Pandya after his price was driven up by the other teams.

To what effect this advantage is used by the PKL teams only time will tell.