Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) could make changes to the retention policy after team owners met Rajiv Shukla and Anurag Thakur earlier in the week.
Zee News has reliably understood that majority of franchise owners are in favour of altering the policy.
IPL teams had signed a three-year contact last year, which permitted them to retain five players and could keep hold of their sixth player with a 'right to match' option.
However, majority of team owners now want that rule to be tweaked so that all players can be part of the auction process.
Some franchises want the option of five matching cards instead of retaining five players. This will help them to match the maximum bid for their players.
As per Ankur Tyagi's sources, the original rules were changed when BCCI was headed by N Srinivasan and the new policy was most beneficial to the Chennai Super Kings.
Now that power at the BCCI has shifted out of his hands, team owners who earlier were under Srinivadan's thumb, have raised this issue during their meeting with Thakur and Shukla.
This is not the first time team owners have had similar discussion with BCCI regards this issue.
At the time of IPL's inception in 2008, rules stated that every player would go under the hammer after a three-year period. However in 2011, teams were granted an option to retain any four players.
In 2014, BCCI under N Srinivasan wanted teams to retain 8 players. But the opposition of team owners meant that rule could not be implemented.
If the BCCI agrees to the demand of team owners, players like MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Lasith Malinga, Harbhajan Singh and others who have played for one team right from the beginning, will also be available during the bidding.
However, there are some owners who do not want any alteration in the existing retention policy.
But majority feel there should be an option to bid for any player, which will also help them from not giving into player salary demands and other tantrums. Also, there would be no place for under the table dealing and negotiations.
The news rules would affect teams like CSK, RCB and MI, who have retained a core group of players by never allowing them to be part of the auction process.
This matter will now be taken up by IPL's Governing Council, which will send its recommendation to the BCCI Working Committee meeting. The board will then debate and discuss the matter internally and only will it then be in a position to tweak the existing retention policy.
