What are IPL Replacement Rules and How They Impact Teams
IPL 2025 season opener is just 7 days away, with some teams already having started their training session aiming for a strong season ahead. Few weeks back the BCCI had brought in some new rules, which were aimed to be adapted by players during practices and matchdays. Let’s take a look at what are IPL replacement rules and how they impact teams.
A deep dive into the replacement rules
What exactly are the replacement rules and is it okay for any IPL team to temporarily include a player not in its registered squad for a portion of the season, beyond just a single game, and then release them? Although it could seem impossible, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has established rules allowing partial replacements under specific conditions.
The BCCI has communicated to the 10 IPL teams the scenarios where partial replacements are acceptable and introduced the Registered Available Player Pool (RAPP), from which franchises must select replacement players. The RAPP’s purpose and eligibility criteria are well-defined.
A key exception applies to wicketkeepers. Per clause 6.1, replacements for partial unavailability aren’t typically allowed unless: (a) all wicketkeepers in a franchise’s registered squad are unavailable for a match. In such cases, the team can request a temporary wicketkeeper replacement from outside its squad via a special BCCI exemption. This short-term player can participate until a registered wicketkeeper becomes available again, at which point they must step aside. The franchise must notify the BCCI immediately when a specialist wicketkeeper regains eligibility. If an unavailable wicketkeeper is an overseas player and the team has already filled its eight overseas slots, the replacement cannot be an overseas player.
IPL franchise managers have described this as a rare provision, with no known use in the league’s 17 seasons, though it remains an option. Other replacement rules include: (b) a player with a season-ending injury or illness, confirmed by a BCCI-nominated doctor, sustained before the team’s 12th league match, can be replaced if they’d otherwise have been available for all remaining games but will now miss them entirely. Such a replaced player cannot return that season.
Additional clauses (6.2-6.10) outline that full-season replacements are allowed only for players completely unavailable due to reasons like international commitments, lack of a no-objection certificate, certified injury, retirement from all cricket, or other BCCI-approved causes. Only RAPP-listed players qualify, and replacements are limited to one per unavailable player, adhering to squad composition and salary cap rules.
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