Right to Match cards to be a key point of discussion in IPL meeting

The 2018 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) has already started getting the hype even before the auctions have taken place. The mega event will be played in April next year. The season will mark the return of the Chennai Super Kings and the Royals back to the IPL roster. The Governing Council of the tournament is all set to conduct a meeting on November 21 to discuss some of the key propositions of the 2018 edition of the league.

Now, as per the recent reports, it is being speculated that the player retention and the Right to Match cards could be the key points of discussion in the meeting. As per the recent quotes in Sportstarlive, the owners of the franchises have expressed their interest in having the right to match (RTM) cards. In the previous auctions, there were no RTM available and many franchises had rued this ruling.

Now, there is a hope for the owners to see the RTM back on the frame this season. “I don’t know what the governing council would say, but we will propose for the introduction of the right to match,” said Delhi Daredevils CEO, Hemant Dua. While the RTM could be a handy deal for most of the franchises, CSK and the Royals could lose out benefiting from the policy. One of the top Royals official mentioned that they hope the IPL GC will have a level playing field when it comes to the 2018 auctions.

What is Right To Match?

Right To Match cards give the teams a chance of getting their players back to their side after some other team has won the bid on them. For instance, if Virat Kohli goes under the hammer, and say, the Mumbai Indians rope him in for x amount of money after the final bids.

Now, the auctioneer will ask the current owner of the player, Kohli, which is the Royal Challenger Bangalore, if they wish to use their RTM to get back Kohli. If the RCB camp uses the RTM, they will have to shell out the same amount of money for which Mumbai Indians had earlier won the bid. This is trickier than retention since the teams could end up shelling out insane amounts from their purse to get their players back.