The World Cup, India vs Pakistan – the IPL 2015 Player Auction did not stand much of a chance. So fly under the radar it must and even if much of the fanfare will be missing, the IPL 8 auction on 16 February in Bangalore is expected to throw up a few exciting buys, surprises and snubs as well, as it seems to be the case nowadays with the IPL franchises unwilling to spend unnecessary money.
The Delhi Daredevils, much like last season, will be the major buyers at this auction, scheduled to begin this morning, with the Sunrisers Hyderabad also set to be major players.
The Delhi Daredevils have nearly ₹40 crore in their kitty (₹39,75,00,000 to be exact) and with the likes of Kevin Pietersen and Dinesh Karthik released, the beleaguered DD will be looking for a new lease of life via this auction.
The Sunrisers Hyderabad, who just missed out on the playoffs last season, have also released some big players including Darren Sammy, and will want to pick up a couple of marquee stars as well. They have ₹21,05,00,000 to spend at the auction.
Closely following SRH in terms of money available to spend at the auction are the Royal Challengers Bangalore, who let go Yuvraj Singh, among others. RCB have ₹20,80,00,000 to dish out at the IPL 2015 player auction.
Kings XI Punjab, Kolkata Knight Riders, the defending IPL champions, Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals have anywhere between ₹10 and 13.2 crore to spend and it will be interesting to see just how they go about their player auction business.
As always seems to be the case, Chennai Super Kings is the most settled side and only have ₹4,80,00,000 available, having retained pretty much all of their big players.
Those spot-fixing scandals and the Supreme Court order is hovering over the entire IPL and if they can move away from that and get back to business as usual remains to be seen.
Hopefully, the entertainment that these IPL auctions always seem to provide will go some way in doing just that.
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The IPL 2015 Player Auction will begin at 9.30 am IST (4 am GMT, 11 pm ET) with live coverage in India on Sony Six and Sony Six HD. The auction can also be watched via live streaming online on IPL's official website.
Below are the list of players released:
Delhi Daredevils: Kevin Pietersen, Dinesh Karthik, Murali Vijay, Jayadev Unadkat, Ross Taylor, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Rahul Sharma, Wayne Parnell, James Neesham, Siddarth Kaul, Rahul Shukla, HS Sharath, Milind Kumar.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Amit Mishra, Aaron Finch, Darren Sammy, Irfan Pathan, Jason Holder, Venugopal Rao, Brendan Taylor, Prasanth Parameswaran, Anirudha S, Manprit Juneja.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Yuvraj Singh, Muttiah Muralitharan, Albie Morkel, Ravi Rampaul, Sachin Rana, Shadab Jakati, Tanmay Mishra.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Jacques Kallis, Debabrata Das, Sayan Mondal.
Rajasthan Royals: Brad Hodge, Kevon Cooper, Ankit Sharma, Amit Sharma, Ankush Bains.
Chennai Super Kings: Ben Hilfenhaus, John Hastings, Vijay Shankar, David Hussey.
Kings XI Punjab: Cheteshwar Pujara, L Balaji, Murali Kartik.
Mumbai Indians: Pragyan Ojha, Zaheer Khan, Jalaj Saxena, Ben Dunk, Apurva Wankhede, CM Gautam, Krishmar Santokie and Sushant Marathe.
