Sports News : The retention rule was decided in view of the big auction to be held before the IPL 2025 season. Now information is coming out that a deadline has been set for the IPL teams to retain the players before the auction. According to ESPNcricinfo report, the teams have time till October 31 to retain the players. Before the auction, the apex council meeting was held in Bengaluru on Saturday. In this meeting, decisions were taken on many other issues including retention.

The apex council has allowed the IPL franchises to retain a maximum of six players from their previous teams. This will also include a Right to Match (RTM) card in the auction. Any franchise can retain a maximum of five capped players and a maximum of two uncapped players out of the six, including Indian and foreign players. That is, if a team has taken five capped players, then it will have to retain the sixth uncapped player. 

It was also decided in the apex council meeting that if an Indian player has not played for the national team in the last five calendar years, he will be considered an uncapped player. According to the IPL, if a capped Indian player has not played in the starting XI in international cricket (Test matches, ODIs, T20 Internationals) in the last five calendar years before the respective season is held or he does not have a central contract with the BCCI, he will become uncapped. This rule will apply only to Indian players.

If a player in retention makes his international debut before 31 October, he will be considered capped, but if a retained uncapped player makes his international debut even a day before the auction, he will still be considered uncapped. The franchise's purse has also been increased for the big auction, now every franchise will have a purse of Rs 120 crore available for the auction. 

Foreign players will have to register for the auction 
Any foreign player will have to register to participate in the big auction. If a foreign player does not register, he will be ineligible to participate in the next year's mini auction.