Hockey India League trims squad size to 20, franchises can trade players

In what may come as a big relief to team owners in the Hockey India League, the governing council (GC) has decided to cut the squad size from 24 to 20 for the next season.

The team owners had raised concerns over lack of sponsorships and broadcast quality in the last meeting that was held in Bhubaneswar with Hockey India officials.

It is understood that the new regulations are a result of that meeting, in which the franchise owners, who registered losses running into crores, criticised the way the league was being run.

As per the regulations, all teams will have to have 13 Indian and seven overseas players. The GC, in a detailed correspondence shared with all the owners, has also come out with the players’ retention and release rules.

Each franchise will now be allowed to release eight players from the men’s team while it can only retain 10 in the women’s team. All the released players will then become available to be bought during the mini auction that is slated to be held in September this year.

Any player who backed out from the league last year and was banned for three years can return to the same franchise for the new season, subject to the owner’s discretion.

Further, the franchises can trade players amongst themselves, but Hockey India has put an upper cap that says the traded players can only cost 50 per cent over his last franchise fees.

“Player A was sold in the auction for INR 5, 00, 000 and he/she can be traded for a maximum value of INR 7, 50, 000," the document shared with the team owners said.

However, the HIL’s GC has not changed the salary cap of the teams as it remains Rs 4 crore and 2 crore in the men’s and women’s sections, respectively. However, this cap will now include the retained players and those traded by the team owners to bolster their squad.

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