Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin showed his displeasure over the probable return of the Right to Match (RTM) rule in this year's auctions for the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) season. The IPL 2025 auction is slated to be held later this year. Earlier in August, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) managed to engage in a "constructive dialogue" with the owners of the ten teams over several issues before finalizing the IPL player regulations. The RTM rule allows a team to retain a player from their previous season by matching the highest bid by the franchise has made at the auction. Teams had used this rule earlier to hold onto some of their key players in auctions, but it was withdrawn once for the 2021 mega auction in order to give the new franchises, GT and LSG, a better choice of players. Discussing the rule on his YouTube channel, Ashwin stated that it is unfair to players and doesn't offer them a fair value. He stated, "There is no rule more unfair for a player than RTM. Because how has the RTM rule been so far? For example, there is a player called X. He is on a team called, let us say, Sunrisers. His current value is around Rs five-six crores. He has gone into the auction. Now say Sunrisers want to buy the player back. So, the Sunrisers will bid for the player at a base price of 2 crore," He further Added, "Then, let us say, KKR and the Mumbai Indians are bidding for the player. The bid goes up to 6 crores and finally, they say, 'The player is sold to the Mumbai Indians for 6 crores.' So, with RTM, the Sunrisers will then bid for and take the player at 6 crores. The problem here is that Sunrisers are happy. But KKR and MI are unhappy. The only person (party) happy is Sunrisers. Because, in the beginning, they gave attendance bid at base price," The ace spinner further stated, "After that, there is no fair value at all. There is a bidder. The KKR and Mumbai Indians are fighting. For one of those teams, it has gone up to six crores. What does SRH say? 'You bought the player, right? Return the player back” "Very unfair. Because, at this time, SRH has to bid Rs 6.20 crores, the other team Rs 6.40 crores and they should reach the fair value of the player. The problem with RTM is that it is not fair value for the player.” Also Read | RCB, MI & 3 Other IPL Teams Likely to Release Their Captains in IPL 2025