IPL Player Regulations 2025-27 Announced

The Indian Premier League (IPL) Governing Council (GC) has announced the player regulations for 2025-27 after discussing with the owners of the franchises.

Franchises are now allowed to retain 6 players via retention or by using the Right to Match (RTM) option, which has been reintroduced after being scrapped in the 2022 mega auction. The Franchise can choose the combination for retention and RTMs, but they can have a maximum of 5 capped and 2 uncapped players. The BCCI board highly deliberated on the retention plan, using three potential strategies to balance it with team competitiveness.

Although the total salary cap (consisting of auction purse, incremental performance pays and match fees) has been increased to Rs. 146 Crore (2025), Rs. 151 Crore (2026) and Rs. 157 Crore (2027) from the previous 110 Crore in 2024, the auction purse has been set at INR 120 Crore. With this, a match fee of INR 7.5 Lakhs per match for each playing member, in addition to his contracted amount, has been introduced.

Further, overseas players will have to register for the Big Auction, failing which they will be ineligible to register for the following year’s player auction. Furthermore, a no-show penalty, i.e., a two-season ban for players picked at the auction but unavailable before the start of the season, has been added.

Finally, a capped Indian player will become uncapped if he has not played in the starting XI in International Cricket (Test match, ODI, Twenty20 International) in the preceding five years or does not have a Central Contract with BCCI. The impact player rules, which allow a team to sub out a first-XI player and field a specialist batter or bowler, depending on the match situation, continue through 2027.