This seems to be the mantra of the once-disgraced IPL team as its owners sat along with their former colleagues during a meeting in Mumbai on Tuesday
'Rajasthan' Royals are back and they do not want to carry forward any baggage from the past.
This seems to be the mantra of the once-disgraced Indian Premier League (IPL) team as its owners sat along with their former colleagues during a meeting in Mumbai on Tuesday.
But Royals (Rajasthan dropped from their name) surprisingly got backing from Kolkata Knight Riders on their demand of "no player retention policy".
They got the stiffest opposition from another disgraced IPL team, also suspended for two years along with Royals, — Chennai Super Kings' in this particular demand.
CSK put forward the demand for "first right to refusal of players" in its bid to retain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
It has been reliably learnt that during the meeting of all the IPL team owners/representatives with the IPL Governing Council and the BCCI office-bearers and the Committee of Administrators (COA), KKR owner Shah Rukh Khan was the only one to back the Royals' move as it would deprive the other franchises of potentially bidding for the likes of Dhoni or Suresh Raina.
In the end, the matter remained unresolved but chances are that teams might be allowed to retain either minimum of three or maximum of five players.
"Most teams want to continue with the brand and that will only be possible if they retain the players. So, the majority view is to retain three to five players," an insider told DNA, adding: "Royals are of the view that to make a fresh beginning, no player should be retained. It was decided to deliberate a bit more before taking a final call."
Also discussed was the issue of number of teams for the next IPL season. Though nothing concrete was decided, the majority view was to "stick to eight teams as against 10, which was floated as an alternate option by the GC".
As far as CSK is concerned, the franchise has been asking for a retention policy or a draft system that was used when Gujarat Lions and Rising Pune Supergiants were made to pick from the two suspended franchises in 2016. This system would allow the two franchisees — CSK and Royals — an opportunity to retain their players with the highest-paid franchise getting to pick first.
"Gujarat and Pune got the opportunity two years back because it was reverse auction. But this isn't similar and moreover if CSK and RR had similar requests, it would have met with some support, but right now it is only CSK who are demanding one. We need to find a balance on that," the insider added.
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