The ILT20 will allow franchises to sign two players as wildcards from the second season onwards. The franchises will be permitted to spend a maximum of US$ 250,000 on the wildcards, which will be direct signings.

As per the ILT20 rules, franchises have a purse of US$2.5m to build a squad of 22. While all six teams have already finalised their squads for the 2024 season post retention, the ILT20 has given them the option to sign two more players. The wildcard signings, the ILT20 said in a media release on Monday, are not mandatory, but can be added to the squad at any point before or during the season.

The second season of ILT20, a six-team tournament, will start from January 19 in the UAE, with the final on February 18.

In case the franchise has already exhausted its purse, the ILT20 has said it could spend a maximum of 10% of the purse to secure the wildcard player(s). Teams with the balance purse could utilise it to buy the wildcard player(s) as long as the signing is within the $250,000 limit.

ESPNcricinfo has learned that ILT20 updated the franchises on the wildcard option this week. So far, no official wild-card signing has happened. The ILT20 has also pointed out that a wildcard player could not be replaced with a fresh wildcard signing.

The ILT20 is the third franchise league to deploy the wildcard player after the Hundred and SA20. Last year, SA20 introduced thee wildcard player option with minimum salary of Rand 175,000 [$10,290 approx.] which would not be accounted from the purse.

The wildcard is the second new rule the ILT20 has added, as it gets ready to launch the second season. Recently, it told franchises they could bring in a Super-sub during a match, similar to the Impact player in the IPL.

While not mandatory, teams can introduce the Super-sub at any point after the first over the match, or even at the start of the second innings. The one key condition set by the ILT20, though, is that a minimum of two UAE players must be part of the playing XI at all times.