2018 IPL: Star Sports to telecast player retention event

The first major Cricket-related event that will take place in 2018 is the IPL retention as the IPL Governing Council (GC) has fixed January 4 as the deadline for the franchises to announce the players who are going to be retained ahead of the 2018 IPL.

In the past, the franchises were asked to drop an e-mail about their retention list but this year, it has been understood that the franchises have been asked to send their representatives to the venue in Mumbai on January 4 and make the announcement of the players they are going to retain.

Adding to this, the event will be telecasted live on the official broadcasters for the IPL, Star Sports, as they are looking to flag off this year’s IPL coverage with this event.

“The idea is to send out a message that the IPL is not just about money. A lot of effort is put in team-building and we want to start the IPL coverage through retention. The retained players form the core of the teams,” said a Star official in an exclusive chat with Mirror.

Though the time of the event is yet to be confirmed by the broadcasters, it is expected that it will get underway at 1900 IST.

2018 IPL retentions

Date: January 4, 2018

Venue: Taj Lands End, Mumbai

Time: 1700 IST

Telecast: Star Sports

Rule: A franchise can retain five players using one of the two combinations - three pre-auction retentions and two RTMs or two pre-auction retentions and three RTMs. This means the franchises can retain a maximum of three players at the auction.

Cost of the players: If the franchise retains three players, the cost of the players will be 15, 11 and 7 crores INR respectively. If the franchise retains two players, the cost of the players will be 12.5 and 8.5 crores INR respectively. If the franchise retains one player: The cost of the player will be 12.5 crores INR. In case any franchise retains an uncapped player, the cost of the player will be 3 crores INR. The money will be deducted from the franchises' auction purse.

In the past, if a franchise was paying a player 15 crores (actual price), only 12 crores (guideline price) will be deducted from their budget. The IPL GC has released a new policy that will see the teams pay the highest amount of the guideline or actual price. Also, if a player is not satisfied with the price being quoted by his franchises, he could opt to be a part of the auction pool which could see him get a huge price.

Earlier, it was reported that the coverage will start as early as January, in spite of the actual event will take place in April-May. The broadcasters have singled out six months exclusively for the event and will have as many as 10 dedicated channels on their network for the most-anticipated event in the Indian Cricket calendar.