IPL Teams Can Replace Players Mid-Season. Report Reveals BCCI's 'Exceptional' Conditions

The IPL 2025 starts on March 22 with a match between defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Before the top T20 franchise league starts, a report has claimed that the BCCI has made provisions under 'exceptional circumstances' to make partial replacement in the squad. The BCCI's communication in this regard has already been sent to the 10 franchises, according to a report in Cricbuzz. However, the players can be picked from RAPP (Registered Available Player Pool) only. The report also claimed that managers of the teams have said that this provision has never been utilised before. 

The provision pertains to wicketkeepers. "Where all the wicket keepers in a Franchisee's Registered Squad are unavailable for a Match then such franchisee should ask BCCI for a special exemption. In such circumstances, BCCI would look favourably on a request to allow one short-term replacement wicketkeeper from outside such Franchisee's Registered Squad to be brought into its Registered Squad until any one of the specialist wicketkeepers in that Registered Squad becomes available to play at which point such short-term replacement wicketkeeper may no longer play for the relevant Franchisee," the rule says, according to the report.

"In such circumstances, the franchisee shall immediately inform the BCCI upon any of its specialist wicketkeepers becoming eligible to play after any such period of unavailability. If one of the unavailable wicket keepers in a franchisee's Registered Squad is an Overseas player and that Franchisee has its full quota of 8 Overseas players, the Replacement Player may not be an Overseas player."

The other replacement clauses are as follows: 

"b) A player who suffers a season-ending injury