Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have long raised the flag on RTM (Right to Match) cards. The franchise has been eager to erasure retentions altogether and floated the idea of having just RTMs in the Indian Premier League (IPL) when it comes to auctions, mega or mini. Last season, their CEO, Venky Mysore, expressed that he’d wanted 8 retentions ahead of the auction but all through RTMs.
KKR miffed with BCCI changing RTM rule
So, this year, when the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) asked the IPL franchise for their suggestions before confirming the rules of the IPL 2025 mega auction, KKR suggested the use of RTMs. Fascinatingly, the BCCI agreed. They allowed six retentions and no bounds on the use of RTM cards.
You’d expect KKR would be happy. Well, they weren’t. BCCI had tweaked the RTM rules. Previously, once the bidding for a player stopped, the franchise it originally belonged to could raise the paddle and get him back. However, according to the new rule, the franchise with the highest bid could have a chance to place another one after the original owners of the player expressed interest.
According to Cricbuzz, such was KKR’s displeasure that they wrote a letter to BCCI. It was what Kolkata had wanted for some years, but when the time came, a last-minute rule change ruined everything. This is the reason why, despite pushing for RTM, they are just one of two teams who won’t have the RTM card at the IPL mega auction.
If the RTM rules had remained the same, KKR might have gone with zero retentions to the auction. However, they’ve instead chosen to retain the maximum number of players, something they were opposed to when the IPL owners sat with the BCCI office-bearers earlier in the year.
KKR retained players list for IPL 2025
Retention No. 1 (Rs 13 crore) – Rinku Singh
Retention No. 2 (Rs 12 crore) – Varun Chakravarthy
Retention No. 3 (Rs 12 crore) – Sunil Narine
Retention No. 4 (Rs 12 crore) – Andre Russell
Retention No. 5 (Rs 4 crore) (uncapped) – Harshit Rana
Retention No. 6 (Rs 4 crore) (uncapped) – Ramandeep Singh
Purse left – Rs 63 crore
