SRH are among the franchises who have strongly been against holding a mega auction

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) CEO Kavya Maran has called for strict action against players who choose to withdraw from the season without a concrete reason. The 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) runners-up are one among several franchises facing the issue for several seasons now.

Ahead of the 2024 season, SRH had roped in Sri Lanka mystery spinner Wanindu Hasaranga for his base price of INR 1.5 crore. The contingent at the auction table were surprised after potentially claiming a steal deal. However, Hasaranga did not turn up for the season, forcing SRH to seek a replacement.

Although the former Sri Lanka skipper cited injury as the reason behind his absence, it is believed that SRH did not take the news well. It is to be noted that Hasaranga had a salary of INR 10 crore during his Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) stint.

“After being selected in the auction, if a player doesn’t come to play the season for any reason apart from injury, he should be banned. The franchises put in a lot of effort into the auction to form their combinations. If a player goes for a low amount in the auction, and subsequently doesn’t turn up, it affects the combination and the balance of the side. There have been many instances of overseas players not turning up for this reason,” Kavya Maran told Cricbuzz.

In the past, several English players have also withdrawn from the competition in the weeks preceding it, and it has affected the preparation of the franchises subsequently.

“The franchise should have the discretion of how they split the amount among the retained players” – SRH CEO Kavya Maran

The previous mega auction saw the BCCI set the price tag for each retention on a descending basis, ranging from INR 16 crore to INR 6 crore. However, Kavya Maran feels that it should be the franchises who decide the salary for a player they are retaining.

“The franchise should have the discretion of how they split the amount among the retained players. This will prevent situations of conflict where players feel that they are of the same calibre but one player gets a higher amount, while the other lower based on pre-assigned brackets. This will also eliminate the potential of off-contract payments,” she told Cricbuzz.

She also had a strong opinion surrounding the number of overseas retentions. SRH had assembled a very strong core of overseas players in the 2024 season, ranging from their skipper Pat Cummins to one of the best T20 players in the world in Heinrich Klaasen.

The combination resulted in some quality players like Marco Jansen and Glenn Phillips missing out on the playing XI. In the previous mega auction, there was a provision for franchises to retain a maximum of only two foreign players.

“Each team is built differently and the core strengths of various squads are different. Some have strong overseas players, some have strong capped Indian players, and some strong uncapped players. In our case, we have a strong core of overseas players. The number of capped/uncapped/overseas players retained should be at the discretion of the franchise and not restricted. For example, we can retain four overseas and two capped Indians or three overseas and three uncapped Indians and so on,” she added.

The IPL franchise owners were involved in a crucial meeting with the BCCI to discuss the parameters for the 2025 auction as well as the fate of the impact player rule.