Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) CEO Venky Mysore has once again expressed his displeasure over IPL mega auction. With the franchises gearing up for the much-awaited mini-auction this month, Venky Mysore has made it clear that he is not a big fan of the mega-auction.
The mega-auction is held every three years, giving the teams an opportunity to completely overhaul their squads. However, it also destroys continuity. Squads that years to settle get dismantled overnight. The same process that allows franchises overhaul their squads also forces them to break well-settled combination.
KKR bore the brunt of the mega auction in IPL 2025. Their title-winning squad was broken in 2025 and they lost a number of key players including their captain Shreyas Iyer. As a result, KKR not only failed to defend their title but also failed to progress to the playoffs.
Your daily dose of cricket!
Also Read: Did Kolkata Knight Riders Force Andre Russell To Retire? West Indies Star Breaks His Silence
As KKR look to rebuild a strong squad, Venky Mysore has said that mega auction is like a punishment for the franchises. He stated that the franchises work ‘very, very hard’ to build teams and their effort is undone by the mega auction.
“We have made our position very, very clear when last year we franchises had a big discussion with IPL around retention and various other significant topics. We said you cannot be punishing franchises who have worked very, very hard to build teams to identify talent, develop them and have had success. And suddenly you are saying that’s it, let’s do a mega auction every three years,” Venky Mysore told ESPNcricinfo.
Venky Mysore’s sensational allegation:
Speaking further on the same topic, Venky Mysore also made a sensational allegation. The KKR CEO stated that IPL changed the retention rules in 2011 in order to favour certain teams. He revealed that there was not supposed to be any retention that year but IPL eventually introduced it ‘because there were some key players that certain franchises didn’t want to release.’
In the end, each franchise was allowed to retain four players ahead of the 2011 mega auction. Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings were the biggest beneficiary of the decision as both the teams retained four players each.
“After 18-19 years of the league, this shouldn’t be happening. I’m not a fan of the viewpoint around equalising and this surprise element and all that. It doesn’t make any sense, to be honest. It doesn’t help the league, it doesn’t help the whole fan community.
“I mean this is the reason why the retention rule got created. In the very first auction that I attended, in 2011, there was not supposed to be any retention, but it was introduced because there were some key players that certain franchises didn’t want to release.
“The original plan was every three years everybody goes into the auction. Not that I disagree with that, I agree with that retention principle, but the principle of it is really that you are rewarding teams for having developed players, built that team, built that franchise, and connected with the fan base and working through it,” he added.
