IPL stars want ₹40 crore retentions. Is any player worth a quarter of a team's purse?

In 2008, an IPL team had ₹20 crore to build an entire squad. Now some of the league's biggest stars reportedly want twice that for themselves. A ₹40 crore retention fee, demanded before the next mega auction, would be the biggest pay day in IPL history, and it would use up more than a quarter of a team's budget on one name.

It's the clearest sign yet of how much the IPL's money has grown, and of who now thinks they deserve a bigger share of it.

What's being reported

According to a Cricbuzz report cited by SportsTak on 6 November, several top Indian and international players have told their franchises they want ₹40 crore to stay ahead of the next mega auction.

• At least two marquee players have reportedly made it a condition: pay the fee, or they go into the open auction.

• One of the demands is reportedly tied to the captaincy.

• None of the players has been named, and no franchise has commented publicly.

This is a reported demand, not a signed deal. But the fact that players feel able to ask for it says a lot about where the market is.

How IPL retention works, and why ₹40 crore breaks the scale

Before every mega auction, teams can keep some of their players instead of releasing them into the auction. The money they spend comes out of their auction purse.

At the last mega auction, the BCCI set retention slabs of ₹18 crore, ₹14 crore and ₹11 crore. Teams could pay more if they declared it, and some did: Sunrisers Hyderabad kept Heinrich Klaasen at ₹23 crore, and Lucknow Super Giants kept Nicholas Pooran at ₹21 crore.

The auction itself went higher. Rishabh Pant went to Lucknow for ₹27 crore and Shreyas Iyer to Punjab Kings for ₹26.75 crore, both after turning down retention. That's the lesson players have learned: walking away can pay more than staying.

A ₹40 crore retention would beat Pant's record by ₹13 crore, or almost 50%.

If the purse reaches ₹150 crore, a ₹40 crore player would take 26.7% of it. Pant's ₹27 crore took 22.5% of the ₹120 crore purse in 2025. So the ask isn't only bigger in rupees. It's a bigger slice of the team.

Why the stars think they're worth it

Follow the media money. The IPL's 2023–27 media rights were sold for about ₹48,390 crore, which works out to roughly ₹118 crore per match. The next rights cycle goes on sale in 2027, and Outlook links the expected jump in the purse to that sale.

The players' argument is simple:

• Fans watch stars, not squads. Broadcasters and sponsors pay for the names that bring viewers.

• The market already pays more in the auction. Pant and Iyer showed that a player who walks away can earn more than one who stays.

• Captains carry the brand. A captain fronts the team's sponsors, its social media and its press conferences. One of the reported demands is tied to the captaincy for exactly this reason.

It's the same shift we see among the world's highest-paid athletes: the biggest names know their commercial value, and they're pricing it in.

The second scoreboard: what ₹40 crore does to a team

For a franchise, one ₹40 crore player isn't just an expensive signing. It reshapes the whole squad.

• Less money for everyone else. A squad needs up to 25 players. If one takes ₹40 crore of ₹150 crore, the other 24 share ₹110 crore.

• A weaker auction hand. Teams that spend big on retention arrive at the auction with less to bid, just as rivals come in with full purses.

• A precedent. If one team pays ₹40 crore, every agent of every star will point to it next time.

• The other option has risks too. Refuse, and the player enters the auction, where a rival may pay even more for him.

There's also a commercial case for paying. A star captain can help a franchise sell sponsorships, merchandise and tickets, and franchises are now worth billions: Rajasthan Royals was reportedly bought for $1.65 billion this year. For an owner protecting an asset that size, ₹40 crore for the face of the team may look like a fair price.

The takeaway

The ₹40 crore retention demand is the IPL's growth coming full circle. The league made its teams rich, the teams made their stars famous, and now the stars want their share. Whether franchises pay will tell us how much they believe one player can move the business, and not just the scoreboard.

The next date to watch is 17 November, the retention deadline for IPL 2027, with the mini-auction in Goa on 16 December

At The Sports Columnist, we cover the money, deals and decisions behind sport. Every game has a second scoreboard, and in the IPL, the stars are now bidding on themselves.

Data note: the ₹40 crore figure is a reported demand from unnamed players, via Cricbuzz and SportsTak. The ₹150 crore purse is expected, not confirmed. Figures as of 7 November 2026.

Would you pay ₹40 crore to keep one player? And which player would it be? Tell us in the comments.