Why in news?
- Recently, Hardik Pandya, the famous Indian cricketer, was traded from Gujarat Titans to Mumbai Indian.
- Both Gujarat Titans are Mumbai Indian are the franchise teams of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
- The IPL is a men's Twenty 20 cricket league founded in 2007 by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Lalit Modi.
- The IPL is held annually in India between March and May. The league is contested by ten city-based franchise teams.
- The IPL's headquarters are in Mumbai.
What’s in today’s article?
Trading in IPL
- In the IPL, teams can trade players during the trade window before the auction.
- The trade window is a crucial time for teams to improve their squads.
What are the types of trade one IPL franchise can do?
- There are two types of trade: One way trade and Two-way trade.
- A one-way trade is when a franchise buys one or more players from another IPL team.
- The example of a one-way trade is of all-rounder and Gujarat Titans captain Hardik Pandya moving to Mumbai Indians.
- In a two-way trade in which teams swap players.
- The example of a two-way trade is the one where we saw Rajasthan Royals swapping their top-order batsman Devdutt Padikkal with Lucknow Super Giants pacer Avesh Khan.
- Player consent is required for both a one-way trade and a two-way trade.
How does the one-way trade of players work?
- Working
- If a player is getting an offer from another IPL team, then he can inform his existing team that he is interested in being traded.
- The decision to sell a player of theirs can come from a franchise too after taking consent from the cricketer.
- In both situations, a transfer fee is discussed between the player and his current IPL team.
- E.g., when Hardik Pandya moved from Gujarat Titans to Mumbai Indians, a transfer fee would have been decided by the player and Gujarat Titans.
- Players right on transfer fee
- The BCCI has no cap on transfer fees.
- Players have a right to ask for a percentage of the transfer fees from the team he is moving out from. This will be a one-time payment.
- The team to which the player is moving, pays the transfer fee to the team which is releasing the player.
- Once a transfer agreement is signed, it is sent to the BCCI.
Can teams release players and retain players?
- Teams can release players and they will be part of the auction pool. They can also retain players.
- For example, Kolkata Knight Riders have retained all-rounders Andre Russell and Sunil Narine.
- At the same time, KKR have released players like Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan, India all-rounder Shardul Thakur, and New Zealand fast bowler Tim Southee.
From where does a team source the money to buy a player who has been traded to them?
- Source of Money
- IPL teams earn money from a variety of sources, including:
- Media rights, Prize money, Ticket sales, Merchandise sales, Brand sponsorships, Player auctions, Player endorsements, Central sponsors, Shirt sponsors, Partnerships.
- The BCCI also distributes a large portion of money to the franchises each year.
- IPL teams use this money to pay for players, coaches, and other expenses.
- Each team had a purse of Rs 95 crores for last year’s mega auction. This year is a mini-auction, with an increase of Rs 5 crore to the overall budget.
- Hence, the 2024 IPL auction will give each team a budget of Rs. 100 crore.
- Example of Mumbai Indians
- Mumbai Indians spent Rs 94.5 crores last year. So, they had only Rs 5.50 crore in their kitty for the upcoming auction.
- However, MI have released fast bowler Jofra Archer and all-rounder Cameron Green among others.
- Hence, they will have money in hand to get Hardik on board and bolster the squad in the auction.
