IPL auction: Uncapped players a priority, says Rajeev Shukla

Uncapped players have seen unheard of bids for this season of the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL) thanks to a change in the process, IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla told ET in an interview on the sidelines of the mega player auction in Bengaluru. Edited excerpts:

We have seen a lot of uncapped players selling at high prices. Is that because of the changes in the auction process?
This time we have given priority to uncapped players. Earlier, first all capped players used to be auctioned and so by the time uncapped players used to come, franchisees would have exhausted most of their purse. So the uncapped players never used to get their value. This time, the combination was made so that the first set of capped players was followed by uncapped players. That’s why a lot of uncapped players have seen the kind of value which was unheard of.


Would you say that the target has been met?
IPL’s original concept was that domestic players, uncapped players and junior cricketers must be promoted. With this auction, we have achieved this target. Uncapped players getting high value for their talent is the best development of this player auction.

All the franchisees used their RTM (right to match) cards very strategically, upsetting a lot of bids. But not all franchisees were happy with the retention policy…
There was no consensus on this issue among the team owners. So we called a meeting of all the team owners and took vote. Whatever was the majority vote, we went with that. And RTM is the beauty of this auction. Sometime some players feel that they are not getting the full value of their worth. By RTM they asses their value.

You had earlier announced that IPL match timings would be revised. When do you plan to do so given that the franchisees are not on the same page?
As I said, the broadcaster (Star India) had given this idea and we considered it. Nothing has been decided yet and we are talking to the stakeholders. We are taking everyone’s point of view. After soliciting everyone’s views, we will take a final call on that.

Has a decision been taken on increasing the share of foreign boards?
The provision has been made that the boards who will make all their players available for the entire season of IPL, will get 20% of their players’ fee. So far they were getting 10%. We are talking to franchisees on who is supposed to pay. We feel franchisees should, but it’s not final yet. The idea is to give incentive to those boards who are providing their players for full season.

Will that be from this season or the next?
That we are working on.

When will the schedule be released?
The dates are out – IPL will be played between April 7 and May 27. The entire schedule in terms of matches and venue will be out within a fortnight.