With the teams of the Indian Premier League announcing their final player retention list on Tuesday, the cricketing fraternity is already gearing up for the mega auction. The period between the announcement of the retention list and the auction was pretty straightforward earlier, however, the inclusion of two new franchises — Lucknow and Ahmedabad — has given it a fresh twist.

With the maximum salary purse set at Rs 90 crore, the existing franchises had to decide whether they want to spend nearly half their kitty on existing players or have the upper hand with a larger purse during the mega auction, slated to be held in January. The management of these teams will now be building their teams around the retained players for the upcoming season. 

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Earlier, with eight franchises, the unretained players would have gone straight to the auction pool. But now, as per BCCI rules, the new franchises can sign three players before the auction.

How can the new franchises sign players?

As the retention period has come to a close, the two new franchises can spend Rs 33 crore each on signing three players before the auction.

The break up of the spending structure is Rs 15 crore, Rs 11 crore and Rs 7 crore for the first, second and third players respectively.

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“If a player is negotiating with a new franchise, he can do it according to the purse allocation. If someone is in line to become the captain of a new team, then obviously he will be joining for Rs 15 crore,” said the franchise CEO, according to Indian Express.

However, the new franchises weren’t allowed to have back-channel negotiations with the players prior to the end of the retention deadline.