“If a player doesn’t come to play the season for any reason apart from injury, he should be banned” – SRH CEO Kavya Maran

Sunrisers Hyderabad CEO Kavya Maran has made a bold claim, stating a player should be banned to take part in the Indian Premier League if he doesn’t come to play in the tournament apart from being injured. Many players in the past have opted out of the lucrative competition due to personal reasons and workload management.

SRH had roped in the services of Sri Lanka mystery spinner Wanindu Hasaranga for INR 1.5 crores. However, the Sri Lankan didn’t turn up for the tournament and thus the Orange Army had to name a replacement.

With IPL 2025 mega auction set to take place in December, all the 10 IPL teams are expected to go through a major haul. 

Meanwhile, Sunrisers Hyderabad qualified for the IPL 2024 final but they could not get over the line against Kolkata Knight Riders.

“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.

Speaking about the retention, Maran added that the franchises should have the discretion of how they split the amount among the retained players.

“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 added.

Kavya noted that each team has its own strength and weaknesses and the franchise should be given a free hand on how they want to retain Indian as well as 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.

IPL franchise owners met on Wednesday to discuss the retention rules for the forthcoming auction.