press trust of india
Mumbai, Dec 14: India’s limited-overs skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, along with his teammates Ravindra Jadeja, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina and Ravichandran Ashwin, among others, will be up for grabs for the two new IPL teams in the draft to be conducted here Tuesday.
Also available for picking by the Twenty20 League’s two new franchises Pune and Rajkot are other top international stars such as Kiwi Brendon McCullum, Australia’s Shane Watson, now retired from international cricket, and current captain Steven Smith, and West Indian all-rounder Dwayne Bravo from of 50 cricketers, who played for suspended IPL teams CSK and RR in the last edition.
Pune will be given the choice to pick the players first because they were the lowest bidders (negative bids) to buy the new team for two years in the draft to be conducted at the Mumbai Cricket Association’s recreation centre at the Bandra Kurla Complex.
The cricketers from the two suspended franchises Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) will be divided into two groups of capped and uncapped and the top names will be sold through the draft system. The two new teams will have a minimum of `40 crore and a maximum of `66 crore to spend for buying players.
It would be interesting to see whether India’s T20 and World Cup winning skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni still commands the sort of appeal that he generated when CSK gunned for him and won with a stunning million-dollar bid, unheard of in cricket then, in the first-ever players’ auction conducted eight years ago.
As per the tender for the two new teams, the first capped player would be paid `12.50 crore while the remaining four capped players are to get `9.50 crore, `7.50 crore, `5.50 crore, and `4.00 crore respectively.
It would also be interesting to note whether Rajkot guns for its home player Jadeja whose stocks have risen after he made a successful comeback into the Indian squad in the Test series against South Africa.
