Explainer: How is the exchange of players in IPL? Know the rules of trade deal and its history till now

IPL Trades Rules: Trade deal in the Indian Premier League simply means that players are exchanged from one team to another without going to the auction. That means teams take a player and transfer one of their players to another team. The IPL Governing Council sets a special rule and time limit for this, which is called ‘Trading Window’.

What are the rules of IPL trade deal?

Two-way Trade: Two-way trade deal in IPL means that two franchise teams exchange players among themselves. That means one team will give its player to another team and in return will take a player of its choice from that team. Their fees may also reduce during trade deals or exchange of players in IPL. However, as per normal rules, a player moves to another team at his old salary, but under the special rules of IPL, there are some special circumstances to reduce or adjust the fee; For example, if a player wants to go to another team and the new team is not ready to pay him his current fees, then he can get his salary cut as per his wish.

Recently, a two-way trade deal has been signed between Delhi Capitals (DC) and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) regarding Rishabh Pant and Kuldeep Yadav, in which Pant’s fee has been reduced. Actually, in the mega auction of IPL 2025, Lucknow Super Giants had bought Rishabh Pant for Rs 27 crore, but now he has agreed to join Delhi Capitals for a fee of Rs 15 crore only. In this way, there has been a huge reduction of 44.44% in Pant’s fees. At the same time, Kuldeep Yadav from Delhi Capitals has joined the Lucknow team at his current fee of Rs 13.50 crore.

One-way Trade: Through a one-way trade deal, one team directly buys a player from the other team by paying his entire fee (contract amount) in cash. In this, the player is not exchanged for any other player. The biggest trade deal of IPL was done between Gujarat Titans and Mumbai Indians in the year 2023 through all-cash deal. Mumbai Indians had directly included Hardik in their team by paying his entire contract fee of Rs 15 crore to Gujarat Titans. No other player was swapped in this. Apart from the official fee (Rs 15 crore), a huge ‘transfer fee’ was also paid by Mumbai Indians to Gujarat Titans. Although, there was no official disclosure of this amount, but in rumors this amount was said to be quite high. This was the first such big deal of IPL, where a winning captain was suddenly included back in his team by his old team through the trade window. It is noteworthy that under the captaincy of Hardik Pandya, Gujarat Titans won the IPL title in its debut season (2022) itself.

Main trading terms and conditions

Player consent mandatory: No franchise team can trade players on its own, for this it is necessary for the player to sign a ‘Consent Form’ and if the player refuses, the deal is cancelled.

Transfer Fee: If a franchise team offers more money for a player than his current fee, then the player also gets a part of that additional profit (up to 50%).

Effect on purse limit: The salary of a player in a one-way trade i.e. all-cash deal. That fee is deducted from the auction purse of the buying team and added to the purse of the selling team, because it does not get any player in return.

BCCI’s final approval mandatory: No trade deal in IPL is official until BCCI and the IPL Governing Council give it final approval. No trade deal can be done without their consent

When does IPL trade window open?

According to IPL rules, the trade window opens after the end of the season and remains open till a week before the auction of the next season. However, recently by changing the rules, it has been opened only 7 days after the end of the IPL 2026 season, which will reopen after the auction for the next season ends and will be closed a month before the start of the season.