IPL Trade Rules & Dates: How Do Player Transfers Work And When Does The Window Close?

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IPL Trade has been the talk of the town for the past week after one of the biggest transfers in Indian Premier League history happened on the 2024 retention deadline day on Sunday (November 26).

After much speculation, Mumbai Indians successfully traded in Gujarat Titans skipper Hardik Pandya, while they also traded out Australian all-rounder Cameron Green to Royal Challengers Bangalore. Both transfers were an all-cash trade, meaning no players were involved in the trade.

Mumbai Indians reportedly paid an undisclosed fee, which includes the Rs 15 Crore, the Gujarat Titans paid to sign Pandya as part of the draft ahead of the IPL 2022 mega auction. RCB, on the other hand, paid Rs 17.50 Crore to land Green.

The announcement of the two players transfers happened after the retention deadline had passed, leading to confusion among many about how the deal could happen after GT had announced the retention of Pandya.

So, here we try to clear those doubts and also look at how the trades work and when the window actually opens, pauses, reopens and closes as well as the previous trades in IPL history:

What does IPL trade mean and when did it first happen?

IPL trade is when player from a franchise moves to another franchise in either a cash-only transfer or a player exchange transfer, which means franchises just swap players.

The IPL trade first happened in 2009 when Mumbai Indians traded Ashish Nehra in exchange for Shikhar Dhawan from Delhi Capitals in a first player swap, while the first all-cash trade happened in 2012.

What are the rules of IPL trade?

A player trade can only happen during the window which varies every season depending on when the season ends and when the auction is being held.

For a player trade to happen, all three parties, including the player, have to come to an agreement and then the deal will finally conclude with the approval of the IPL.

When does the IPL Trade window open and when does it close?

According to the rules of IPL, the player trade window opens a month after a season ends and stays open up to a week before the auction date, and then re-opens a day after the auction and lasts until a month before the start of the new season.

In case of IPL 2024, the trade window opened in July, and is still open until December 12 before it reopens a day after the auction on December 20 till a month before the season starts, potentially in February 2024 if the season starts in March 2024.

Can players bought in the auction be used for trade?

No, only players that were retained ahead of the IPL auction can be traded, meaning players bought at previous auctions in 2022 and 2023 can be used in player trade or swap.

What are the different types of trades in IPL?

There are two types of trades that can happen in the IPL transfer window - the player swap (two-way trade) like the Devdutt Padikkal-Avesh Khan or Shabhaz Ahmed-Mayank Dagar case, or the all-cash trade (one-way trade) like the ones we saw in the case of Hardik Pandya, Cameron Green and Romario Shepherd this year.

Player Swap: In this process a player from two franchises are exchanged with the difference value being paid in cash. For Eg: Player A (Rs 20 Lakhs) from Team A moves to Team B with Player B (Rs 30 Lakhs) moving the other way with Team A paying the extra Rs 10 Lakhs.

All-cash Trade: A player moves from Team A to Team B in an all-cash deal, meaning Team B will pay Team A what they paid to land the player at the auction or pre-auction draft or retention.

Which all players have been traded in IPL history?

The IPL trade window has been used in every season except for the inaugural edition and the seasons in which there were mega auctions - 2011, 2014, 2018 and 2022. Here is a look at the season-wise player swap and all-cash deals:

• IPL 2009: Ashish Nehra (MI to DD) for Shikhar Dhawan (DD to MI), Zaheer Khan (RCB to MI) for Robin Uthappa (MI to RCB), Jaydev Shah (RR to MI), Gaurav Dhiman (MI to RCB) and Pankaj Singh (RR to RCB).
• IPL 2010: Moises Henriques (KKR to DD) for Owais Shah & Manoj Tiwary (DD to KKR)
• IPL 2012: Andrew McDonald (DD to RCB), Kevin Pietersen (DC to DD), Dinesh Karthik (KXIP to MI), Harmeet Singh (DC to KXIP), Rajagopal Sathish (MI to KXIP), Pragyan Ojha (DC to MI), Ashok Dinda (DD to PWI), Shreevats Goswami (KKR to RR), Ross Taylor (RR to DD), Abhishek Jhunjhunwala (PWI to DC), Ali Murtaza (MI to PWI).
• IPL 2013: Ashish Nehra (PWI to DD) for Ross Taylor (DD to PWI)
• IPL 2015: Iqbal Abdullah (RR to RCB), Manvinder Bisla (KKR to RCB), Parthiv Patel (RCB to MI), Unmukt Chand (RR to MI), Vinay Kumar (KKR to MI), Mandeep Singh (KXIP to RCB).
• IPL 2016: Kedar Jadhav (DD to RCB), Albie Morkel (DD to RPS), Saurabh Tiwary (DD to RPS), KL Rahul (SRH to RCB), Parvez Rasool (SRH to RCB).
• IPL 2017: Mayank Agarwal (DD to RPS), Shardul Thakur (KXIP to RPS).
• IPL 2019: Mandeep Singh (RCB to KXIP) for Marcus Stoinis (KXIP to RCB), Shikhar Dhawan (SRH to DC) for Vijay Shankar, Shahbaz Nadeem & Abhishek Sharma (DC to SRH), Quinton de Kock (RCB to MI), Jayant Yadav (DC to MI).
• IPL 2020: Mayank Markande (MI to DC) for Sherfane Rutherford (DC to MI), R Ashwin (KXIP to DC) for Jagadeesha Suchith (DC to KXIP), Krishnappa Gowtham (RR to KXIP) for Ankit Rajpoot (KXIP to RR), Ajinkya Rahane (RR to DC) for Mayank Markande & Rahul Tewatia (DC to RR), Trent Boult (DC to MI), Dhawal Kulkarni (RR to MI), Siddheshwar Lad (MI to KKR).
• IPL 2021: Daniel Sams (DC to RCB), Harshal Patel (DC to RCB), Robin Uthappa (RR to CSK).
• IPL 2023: Shardul Thakur (DC to KKR) for Aman Khan (DC to KKR), Jason Behrendorff (RCB to MI), Lockie Ferguson (GT to KKR), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (GT to KKR).
• IPL 2024: Romario Shepherd (LSG to MI), Hardik Pandya (GT to MI), Cameron Green (MI to RCB), Devdutt Padikkal (RR to LSG) for Avesh Khan (LSG to RR), Mayank Dagar (SRH to RCB) for Shahbaz Ahmed (RCB to SRH).

RCB - Royal Challengers Bangalore, KXIP - Kings XI Punjab (Now Punjab Kings), From 2009 to 2012 DC - Deccan Chargers (Now Defunct), From 2009 to 2018 DD - Delhi Daredevils (Now Delhi Capitals), From 2019 DC - Delhi Capitals, PBKS - Punjab Kings, KKR - Kolkata Knight Riders, LSG - Lucknow Super Giants, GT - Gujarat Titans, MI - Mumbai Indians, SRH - Sunrisers Hyderabad, RR - Rajasthan Royals