Shah Rukh Khan, Ness Wadia engage in heated argument during IPL owners’ meeting

The groundwork for the 18th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) has already begun and based on that, the franchise owners met at the BCCI headquarters on Wednesday night. The primary agenda of the discussion was regarding the mega auction ahead of the 2025 season. However, things did not go smoothly as some of the franchises disagreed over the player retention rules.

A mega-auction can lead to franchises letting go of most of their players and building a team from scratch. For the same reason, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) co-owner Shah Rukh Khan is not convinced by the idea of ​​holding a mega auction ahead of the upcoming season. Meanwhile, Punjab Kings (PBKS) owner Ness Wadia was in full support of the auction.

The report further claimed that the Bollywood superstar wanted the number of retentions to be increased while Wadia voted against it. Notably, KKR were crowned champions in the previous edition, defeating Sunrisers Hyderabad in the final. On the other hand, PBKS endured another horrible season, where managed just five wins from 14 matches to finish ninth in the table. 

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Kavya Maran backs Shah Rukh Khan on player retention rule

Other owners who attended the meeting at the BCCI headquarters located at the Cricket Centre in Churchgate in Mumbai were: Kiran Kumar Grandhi of Delhi Capitals, Sanjiv Goenka of Lucknow Super Giants, Rupa Gurunath of Chennai Super Kings, Kavya Maran of SunRisers Hyderabad and Manoj Badale of Rajasthan Royals. A few franchise owners, including Mumbai Indians, reportedly attended the BCCI meeting through video conferencing.

Meanwhile, Shah Rukh Khan received support from SRH owner Kavya Maran who highlighted the long process of developing a squad. Citing Abhishek Sharma, who had a sensational outing in 2023, she also pointed to the need to invest time and resources in nurturing young players.

"It takes a lot of time to build a squad and as discussed, it also takes quite a bit of time and investment for the younger players to mature. It has taken Abhishek Sharma three years to become consistent with his performances. You would agree that there are many such examples in other teams too," stated Kavya after the meeting.