Shah Rukh Khan, Ness Wadia enter into heated debate over IPL mega auction; Kavya Maran backs SRK

The Indian Premier League franchise owners' meeting on Wednesday saw a heated exchange between Kolkata Knight Riders co-owner Shah Rukh Khan and Ness Wadia, co-owner of Punjab Kings, over the IPL mega auction ahead of the next season, reported Cricbuzz. SRK was supported by Sun Risers Hyderabad CEO Kavya Maran, who said that “it takes a lot of time to build” the squad. 

According to the report, the IPL franchise owners' meeting held at the BCCI Headquarters witnessed discussion on several topics to devise plans for the upcoming season. However, the decision to hold mega auctions was the main bone of contention between the franchise owners. 

According to the report, teams are unlikely to be allowed to retain more than five players. They are expected to have one Right to Match (RTM) card, an option for the franchise to match the final bid of a player from the previous season's squad.

Several IPL Franchise teams, including Kolkata Knight Riders' Shah Rukh Khan and SRH CEO Kavya Maran, want to hold on to their high-performing players. Hence they were against the mega IPL auction, where teams get to change their team composition from its core.

The IPL franchise owners meeting was attended by SRK from Kolkata Knight Riders, Kavya Maran from Sun Risers Hyderabad, Sanjive Goenka and Shaswat from Lucknow Super Giants, KK Grand and Parth Jindal from Delhi Capitals, Ness Wadia from Punjab Kings.

BCCI statement on IPL owners meeting 

A day after the meeting BCCI released a statement stating that the governing body organised a “constructive dialogue with owners of the IPL franchise”.

“The Board of Control for Cricket in India on Wednesday organised a constructive dialogue with the owners of the 10 franchises on various subjects pertaining to the upcoming season of the IPL,” BCCI secretary Jay Shah issued a statement on Thursday.

"The franchise owners tabled feedback on player regulations and other commercial aspects, including central merchandising, licensing, and gaming. The BCCI will now take these recommendations to the IPL Governing Council for further deliberation and evaluation before formulating the IPL player regulations," Shah added.