Overseas players who make themselves unavailable for an IPL season after being bought at an auction without legitimate reasons, will henceforth be penalised with two-year bans. That aside, overseas players' auction price tags will be the "lower of the highest retention price" - of INR 18 crore (US$ 2.1 million approx.) - or "the highest auction price at the mega auction".

In a document shared with franchises listing the retention rules, the IPL said: "any player who registers for [an] auction and after getting picked at the auction, makes himself unavailable before the start of the season, will get banned from participating in the IPL/IPL auction for two seasons." The only exception, the governing council said, will be for "an injury/medical condition, which will have to be confirmed by the [player's] home board".

'Maximum fee' for overseas players at mini auctions

The IPL has also agreed to the franchises' suggestion to make it mandatory for overseas players to register for mega auctions. This, they argued, will prevent players and their agents from trying to earn big money during the mini auctions, where teams are usually willing to shell out massive sums to plug specific holes in their squads.

To counter that, the IPL has devised a twin strategy. Firstly, an overseas player will not be allowed to register for a mini auction if he does not register for the preceding mega auction. "Any overseas player will have to register for the big auction. In case the player does not register then he will have to miss the subsequent small auction. Only exception will be in case of an injury/medical condition which will have to be confirmed by the [player's] home board before the big auction."

The IPL has also decided to impose what it called "maximum fee" for overseas players at mini auctions.

"Any overseas player's auction fee at small auction will be lower of the highest retention price [of INR 18 crore] or the highest auction price at the big auction," the IPL said in the document. "In case the highest auction price at big auction is 20 crs [INR 20 crore], then 18 crs [INR 18 crore] will be the cap. If the highest auction price at big auction is 16 crs [INR 16 crore] then the cap will be 16 crs [INR 16 crore].

The rule in place going forward is that the auction for the player will continue as normal till the player is sold, and the final auction amount will be charged to the auction purse. The incremental amount over INR 16 or 18 crore, as the case may be, will be deposited with BCCI. The incremental amount deposited with BCCI will be utilised towards players' welfare."