After a week’s suspension of IPL 2025 season amid border tensions between India and Pakistan, the league is slated to resume on May 17.
After the suspension, most overseas players had returned to their respective countries. Now that the IPL is resuming and has been extended by about 10 days, it is highly unlikely that all overseas players will return to play for their respective franchises.
In this extraordinary situation, BCCI has taken some extraordinary measures to ensure that it will help the franchises.
The BCCI has said that it is allowing a temporary replacement for the remainder of the IPL 2025, a move that will not carry forward to the next year.
In a communication on May 14, the BCCI said that they are reassessing the provision related to player replacement. “Due to non-availability of certain players due to national commitment or personal reasons, or injury or illness, Temporary Replacement Players will be allowed until the conclusion of this tournament,” franchises received an email from IPL COO Hemang.
“This decision is subject to the condition that the Temporary Replacement taken from this point forward, will not be eligible for retention in the following year. Temporary Replacement Players will have to register for the IPL PLayer Auction 2026.
“The replacements that were approved or taken before the suspended period will be eligible for retention ahead of the 2026 player auction.”
“As you are aware, the IPL Player Regulations 2025-27, under Regulations 6.1(b)(i), permit a player to be replaced if they are injured or ill, provided the injury or illness occurs during or before the 12th League Match of the relevant team in the Season.
“However, in the current situation, where we had to temporarily suspend IPL 2025, resulting in its completion beyond the earlier set-out date of May 25, 2025, we have reassessed the Replacement Player provisions.”
It means that IPL franchises will now have an option to pick a different player if an overseas player refuses to come down for the remainder of the season. It will be interesting to see how many players decide not to play the remainder of the IPL.
