09:10 Ishant, Stokes, Johnson among top names up for grabs: Welcome to the coverage of the players’ auction for the 10th edition of the Indian Premier League, in Bengaluru, on Monday.
All the eight franchises will be back on the bidding floor as they try and get the combinations right for this year’s tournament.
The last edition of the first 10-year cycle of the IPL, the 2017 edition has eight teams participating, including the Gujarat Lions and Rising Pune Super Giants.
Both these teams replaced the Rajasthan Royals and the Chennai Super Kings after the duo was suspended for two years on counts of spot fixing.
Being the last year of the current cycle, the 2017 auction could be the most muted so far.
The teams have played it safe and retained most of the Indian marquee players, including Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Pune), Virat Kohli (Bangalore), Gautam Gambhir (Kolkata), Rohit Sharma (Mumbai), Shikhar Dhawan (Hyderabad) and Yuvraj Singh (Hyderabad).
The total salary cap for each team this year is Rs 60 crore.
Most teams have used almost two-thirds of the individual purses in a bid to retain players.
Among the players released are Kevin Pietersen, Ishant Sharma, Mitchell Johnson, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Corey Anderson, Pawan Negi, Eoin Morgan and Trent Boult, all of whom saw considerable bidding in the 2016 auction.
Source: Rediff