Top buys at the IPL auction
Australia's Shane Watson emerged as the biggest buy at IPL 2016 auction. At Rs.9.5 crore, Watson was bagged by Royal Challengers Bangalore. At Rs.8.5 crore uncapped Pawan Negi, bought by Delhi Daredevils, became the costliest Indian. Other pricey purchases include Yuvraj Singh and South Africa's Chris Morris, who each went for Rs.7 crore to Sunrisers Hyderabad and Delhi Daredevils respectively.
BCCI president Shashank Manohar announced that IPL's ninth season will be played from 9 April to 29 May 2016. The IPL player auction will be held in Bangalore on February 6. Before the February auction, there will be an IPL Players Draft on December 15, where the two new franchises from Pune and Rajkot will pick 10 players from among suspended franchises' squads.
In the first-ever IPL player draft, 10 biggest names from the banned Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals were equally distributed between the two new franchises, Pune and Rajkot. Pune with the first right to pick bagged MS Dhoni while Rajkot roped in Raina. Pune's squad also includes Rahane, Ashwin, Steve Smith and du Plessis. Rajkot team bought Jadeja, McCullum, Faulkner and Dwayne Bravo.
As per the tender, the first capped player (who represents a country) would be paid Rs.12.5 crore (Dhoni, Raina). The remaining four capped players are to get Rs.9.5 crore, Rs.7.5 crore, Rs.5.5 crore, and Rs.4 crore respectively.
IPL 2016 Players' auction took off with as many as 351 cricketers up for grabs. There are 230 Indians and 121 overseas players for franchises to choose from. In terms of available spots, if every franchise were to have the maximum of 27 players in their squad, 116 players will be taken in the auction, of which up to 36 may be overseas players.
All teams started with Rs. 66 crore budget for the 2016 IPL season. Because some teams chose to retain players and the others released many, the purse money varies from team to team.
The marquee players list includes Ishant Sharma, Shane Watson, Kevin Pietersen, Yuvraj Singh, Dale Steyn, Aaron Finch, Martin Guptill and Dwayne Smith. Four among these - Ishant, Watson, Pietersen and Yuvraj, have the highest base price of Rs. 2 crore. Other players with similar base price are : Nehra, Dinesh Karthik, Dhawal Kulkarni, Sanju Samson, Stuart Binny, Mike Hussey, Kane Richardson and Mitchell Marsh.
Slots open: DD 14 (including 4 overseas); KXIP 13 (5); KKR 12 (3); MI 8 (3); Pune 22 (7); RCB 13 (4); SRH 12 (4); Rajkot 22 (6). The auction purse available to the teams are: DD Rs.37.15 crore; KXIP Rs.23 crore; KKR Rs.17.95 crore; MI Rs.14.405 crore; Pune Rs.27 crore; RCB Rs.21.625 crore; SRH Rs.30.15 crore and Rajkot Rs.27 crore.
