EXPLAINED: Why did KKR get deducted 12 crore extra from their purse?

It’s been less than two hours since the 2025 Indian Premier League (IPL) retentions got finalised and, fair to say, it’s been chaotic. 

Punjab Kings (PBKS) will go into the auction with a whopping 110.5 crore in their kitty, by some distance the biggest purse among all franchises. Meanwhile, Rajasthan Royals (RR) will go with the lowest purse, with just 41 crore available.

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), who retained six players, will head into the auction with 51 crore in their purse. 

But there’s a catch here: KKR only distributed 57 crore among their six retentions (13 + 12 + 12 + 12 + 4 + 4), leaving them with 63 crore available (120 crore total purse minus 57 crore spent equals 63). Yet an extra 12 crore has been deducted from their purse. Why?

Why did KKR get deducted 12 crore extra from their purse?

The answer is simple: the IPL made it clear that, even if a franchise gives a player less money that the fixed slab amount, they will deduct the allocated slab amount from the purse. 

What do they mean by this?

So KKR made Rinku Singh their top (first) retention and chose to pay him 13 crore. But according to IPL’s rules, the slab allocated for the top (first) retention is 18 crore. 

So even though KKR only paid Rinku 13 crore, the IPL ended up deducting 18 crore from the team’s purse. 

Likewise, the slab for the second retention is 14 crore but KKR only paid Varun Chakravarthy 12 crore. In this case, the IPL ended up deducting two extra crore anyway from KKR’s kitty.

The slab for the third retention is 11 crore but KKR ended up paying Sunil Narine 12 crore. That’s one extra crore back in KKR’s kitty. 

Are you with us? So far, KKR have been deducted six crore extra from their purse (-5 for Rinku, -2 for Chakravarthy and +1 for Narine).

Now, the slab for the fourth retention is 18 crore but KKR paid Andre Russell only 12 crore. But the IPL deducted 18 crore anyway. That’s another six crore gone.

So six plus six, the franchise ended up getting deducted 12 crore in total. 

This is why, though they only spent 57 crore, a whopping 69 crore got deducted from their purse.

The same happened to Delhi, who gave their top retention Axar Patel 16.5 crore. Their second and third retentions (Kuldeep Yadav and Tristan Stubbs) also got less money than the fixed slab amount. 

So an extra 3.25 crore got deducted from DC’s purse. 

Will the money saved get carried over to the mini auction?

So, will KKR and DC have an extra 12 cr and 3.25 cr respectively to spend at the mini auction? That is not clear. We do not have any sort of confirmation or clarity from the IPL on that front.

But what's a huge benefit from the franchise's perspective is that they save a ton of money in terms of salary. Across the last two years of the forthcoming cycle, KKR will save 24 crore in salary because the slabs will only apply for this mega auction. DC will save 6.5 crore less as compared to what they would have paid had they utilised the slab amount fully.

At the very least, it's a smart move from the franchise's side from a business POV. Not great for the players who could - and probably should - have gotten more money, but the individuals in question seem to be content with what they've been allocated.

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