After all the teams submitted their final list of retention ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction, one big name that was missing from the Kolkata Knight Riders’ list was Shreyas Iyer. Star batter guided KKR to lift the IPL 2024 title and still, he was not retained.


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Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) CEO Venky Mysore spoke about the reason behind not retaining Iyer. 


"He was No. 1 on our list (for retention). He's captain and we have to build everything around the leadership. We picked him for this specific reason in 2022," said Mysore, speaking to RevSportz.


"What is fundamental to retention is that it's a matter of mutually agreeing. It's not a one-sided right that the franchise has, the player has to consider various factors and agree," said Mysore.


"Somewhere along the line, if that agreement doesn't happen because of factors like money or someone wants to test their value, then the decision is influenced," Mysore said.


"In this case, it so happened that he felt it was best, and we're always supportive of the players when it comes to going to the auction and testing their value," Mysore added.


Earlier, Shreyas powered KKR to lift the IPL 2024 trophy but the Kolkata-based team parted ways with him. Ahead of the IPL 2025 retention, every franchise started with a purse of ₹120 crore. Retaining multiple capped players can lead to substantial deductions, so strategic management of the purse is crucial for effective team-building. Teams who retained fewer than six players can use Right-To-Match (RTM) cards during the auction to reacquire players. The number of RTM options available correlates with the number of players retained.


Kolkata Knight Riders final retentions List


Rinku Singh: Rs 13 crore


Varun Chakaravarthy: Rs 12 crore


Sunil Narine: Rs 12 crore


Andre Russell: Rs 12 crore


Harshit Rana: Rs 4 crore


Ramandeep Singh: Rs 4 crore