Ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season, an old rule was brought back, allowing players who haven’t played international cricket for five or more years to be retained as uncapped players. The rule helped Chennai Super Kings (CSK) retain their legendary skipper MS Dhoni for just Rs 4 crore. Legendary former India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has now come out and blasted the rule change, and also stated that the price to retain uncapped players shouldn’t be as high as Rs 4 crore.
Gavaskar, in particular, criticised the Rs 4 crore amount that franchises must pay to retain uncapped players, and felt that the league’s wish to keep Dhoni a viable option for CSK forced the amount to be that high.
Gavaskar stated that such a high price could have a negative influence on young, uncapped players.
“A whole lot of the players bought for huge amounts simply fade away as their hunger and drive are satiated. To the franchises, it perhaps doesn’t matter as they may feel it’s good riddance, but Indian cricket takes a bit of a beating at the loss of any player whether he has been successful or not. To accommodate Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who became an uncapped player before the auction last year, the limit was raised to Rs 4 crore,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Sportstar.
“Most of the guys who suddenly become crorepatis are overwhelmed, firstly by their sudden good fortune and then by the nervousness of getting to rub shoulders with those they have admired and perhaps never even dreamt of meeting. They are often not even part of their State’s squad of top 30 players,” Gavaskar further wrote.
It is important to note that the price limit of Rs 4 crore to retain uncapped players ahead of a mega auction has been in place since the IPL 2022 mega auction, much before Dhoni was eligible to be retained as an uncapped player.
12 uncapped players were retained ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction by the 10 different franchises, out of which two players – Dhoni and pacer Sandeep Sharma – could be retained due to the revival of the rule allowing players out of international cricket for five or more years to be retained as uncapped.
The most expensive uncapped retention for IPL 2025 was 33-year-old batter Shashank Singh, who has churned out impressive performances as a finisher for Punjab Kings (PBKS).
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