‘Play or Face 2-Year Ban’: Contracted Overseas Stars to Face Harsh Consequences for Not Taking Part in IPL – News18

With the Indian Premier League’s Governing Council releasing the mandate for franchises ahead of the 2025 mega-auction, one rule will be particularly concerning, especially for overseas players.

In the past, it has been a common occurrence where franchises have invested heavily in some big-name stars from abroad, but due to several reasons like injury, national-team duties or other personal matters, the player would decide to opt out of the season, leaving franchises struggling to find replacements in a short period, thus ruining their plans for the season.

One of the notable misses was that of the Australian pacer, Mitchell Starc who had put himself in the auction for the 2018 season where he fetched a bid of INR 9.4 crores. Most recently, England’s batting sensation, Harry Brook was bought by the Delhi Capitals for 4 crores in the 2024 auction but pulled out due to personal reasons.

Now the league’s Governing Council have released a new mandate which requires each overseas player to register in the mega-auction, should the player not be a part of this then he would not be allowed to take part in the following year’s player auction.

“Any Overseas Player will have to register for the Big Auction. In case the overseas player doesn’t register, then he will be ineligible to register in the following year’s player auction,” read IPL’s official release.

But what will be good news for franchises is the fact that the overseas players would be banned for two seasons from participating in the IPL tournament or the auctions.

“Any player who registers in the player auction and after getting picked at the auction, makes himself unavailable before the start of the season, will get banned from participating in the tournament and player auction for 2 Seasons,” the official mandate read

The move will come as a big boost to franchises who will be pleased with the mandate which will help them safeguard their investments in overseas talent, as they hope to rebuild, rework or retain their overseas stars ahead of the 2025 season.

The overseas players will now have to rethink their choices when putting their name in the pot for the mega-auction or suffer the consequences should they not appear for their respective franchises.

Franchises will be allowed to retain or use their RTM (right-to-match) card for up to a total of six players from their current squad. The official retention slabs has not been revealed in the official release by the IPL.

The Impact Player rule, which has been a highly-debated topic is also set to remain until the 2027 season which might not be ideal for the many critics of the rule.