Agencies
Mumbai, Dec 31: Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Ishant Sharma and Dale Steyn are among the big names released by their IPL franchises ahead of the 2016 season.
Yuvraj, who was bought by Delhi Daredevils (DD) for a whooping `16 crore, has been released ahead of the upcoming IPL-IX edition. Yuvraj, 34, who played 14 games in the 2015 edition scored just 248 runs at an average of 19, the highest being 57.
Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) released retired India swashbuckling batsman Sehwag. The former Daredevils batsman scored just 99 runs in eight outings in IPL-VIII. But then Sehwag, himself had expressed the desire not to continue in the IPL anymore after he decided to hang up his boots.
Star seamer Ishant Sharma, after a sloppy performance in the previous edition where he picked up just one wicket in four matches, was released by his franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad like his partner Dale Steyn who had only six wickets to show for his efforts.
The window for the franchises to retain and release players for the IPL 2016 season closed Thursday. In the only trade that took place batsman Kedar Jadhav joined Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) from DD.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) also decided to release top foreigners Pat Cummins and Ryan ten Doeschate. Both cricketers had failed to contribute substantially in the last campaign for the team.
With DD going into auction with `36.85 crore, Sunrisers are second in the list with `30.15 crores. Mumbai Indians, who have retained a maximum of 19 players, have the least purse of `14.45 crore. KKR with 15 retentions are second lowest in terms of purse at `17.95 crore. KXIP and RCB are left with `23 crore and `21.625 crore purse, respectively.
