Last Updated:
It’s being reported that there will be a mega auction ahead of IPL 2025. (BCCI Photo)
In a video, India cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin has pointed out the ‘unfairness’ of the Right to Match card and hopes it will be done away with.
While the IPL owners remain divided over whether it’s time to drop mega auctions for good, star offspinner Ravichandran Ashwin has expressed his displeasure over the Right to Match (RTM) card option given to franchises to buy back a player they have released at the highest bid made by another team once the bidding has ended.
In a video on his YouTube channel, Ashwin explains how the RTM card only benefits in favour of the team using it and not the player for which it’s used since it prevents him from realising his fair value at the auction.
“There is no rule more unfair for a player than RTM,” Ashwin said. “Because how has the RTM rule been so far? For example, there is a player called X. He is on a team called, let us say, Sunrisers. His current value is around Rs 5-6 crores. He has gone into the auction. Now say Sunrisers want to buy the player back. So, the Sunrisers will bid for the player at a base price of Rs 2 crore.”
“Then, let us say, KKR and the Mumbai Indians are bidding for the player. The bid goes up to Rs 6 crores and finally, they say, ‘The player is sold to the Mumbai Indians for 6 crores.’ So, with RTM, the Sunrisers will then bid for and take the player at 6 crores. The problem here is that Sunrisers are happy. But KKR and MI are unhappy. The only person (party) happy is Sunrisers. Because, in the beginning, they gave attendance bid at base price,” he added.
Ashwin says RTM also leaves other team that may have placed bids for a certain player only to see him being snatched away from under their nose.
“After that, there is no fair value at all. There is a bidder. The KKR and Mumbai Indians are fighting. For one of those teams, it has gone up to six crores. What does SRH say? ‘You bought the player, right? Return the player back,” Ashwin explained.
“Very unfair. Because, at this time, SRH has to bid Rs 6.2 crores, the other team Rs 6.40 crores and they should reach the fair value of the player. The problem with RTM is that it is not fair value for the player. So, if you give three RTMs (to each team), the players will only go virtually empty-handed. Already, they do not get fair value in the auction,” he concluded.
