IPL 11 to be played between April 4 and May 31

What's the story?

According to ESPNCricinfo, the next season of the Indian Premier League will be held between April 4 and May 31.

Apart from the date, a proposal came up at the IPL governing council meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday which might allow the franchises to retain as many as three players ahead of next year's auctions.

The details

Also, according to the proposal, the franchises will be allowed to retain a combination of two Indian and one overseas player or two overseas and one Indian player.

This proposal will be taken up again at a meeting which is slated to be held next week. Also, a final decision will be made on November 14 which would include all the eight franchises.

However, there have been reports that not all franchises are keen on retaining their players, but Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals have shown a lot of interest in retaining a number of players.

In case you didn’t know…

If this proposal sees the light of day, both Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals would be able to pick up the players of their choice from Rising Pune Supergiant and Gujarat Lions, the two teams that replaced them in the last two editions of the IPL.

What's next?

Players like MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Ben Stokes, Steven Smith, Brendon McCullum and Faf du Plessis will be up for grabs at the auctions next year.

Also, it is learnt that some of the richer franchises are looking at a maximum purse of INR 80 crore as opposed to some franchises which are happy with INR 75 crore.

Author's take

This retention policy is indeed a good step as it renders a lot of stability to the franchises. Also, it allows teams to build a nucleus around which they can mould the rest of the team.