Sourav Ganguly

Sourav Ganguly has not been retained by his previous franchise KKR and he will be up for the player’s auction, scheduled to be held in Mumbai, on the 8^th and 9^th of January, 2011. As a matter of fact, the SRK owned franchise hasn’t retained any of the players who have featured in their previous versions of the IPL.

The deadline for player retention was Wednesday. It means that former KKR players like Brendon McCullum, Chris Gayle, David Hussey and Shane Bond will also be up for auction. There’s no doubt that the KKR management is fully aware of the risk involved in not retaining Sourav given the popularity he enjoys in these parts, there are possible chances of the KKR fan base declining.

This risk play of not retaining of any of the players would also allow the franchise to spend from a wider pool. They will have the freedom and capacity to spend the entire amount allotted to a franchise in the players’ auction. On 28^th of November, the BCCI had allocated the base price of the respective Indian players for the auction.

The Board had split the Indian players eligible for auction into 5 separate categories. While the minimum base price for the inaugural IPL was Rs 45,73,000, the minimum for IPL 4 will be Rs 23 lakhs. However, the Knights may still decide to bid for Sourav at the auction, if the circumstances prevail as such. Sahara Pune Warriors are also keen on Sourav, courtesy the close ties between the Roys, who own the franchise, and the Prince of Kolkata.

Gautam Gambhir might be in full form this NZ series but his IPL form doesn’t seem to be anywhere close to his Delhi teammate Virat Kohli. Kohli was retained by the Royal Challengers Bengaluru while Gambhir wasn’t retained by the Delhi DareDevils. However, Viru was retained by the Delhi Daredevils.

Each franchise has been allowed to retain 4 players, including up to a maximum of 3 Indians, from their previous IPL editions’ squad, but they would lose $1.8 million from the allotted spending amount of $9m against the first player retained; $1.3 m for the second, $900,000 for the third and $500,000 against the fourth player retained.

The RCB has released former Indian skippers Kumble and Dravid.As expected; Mumbai Indians have retained Sachin Tendulkar and Bhajji besides West Indian beast Kieron Pollard and Sri Lankan pacer Malinga. Indian captain MS Dhoni, Raina, M Vijay and South African Albie Morkel would stay with defending champions the CSK, owned by India Cements of which BCCI secretary and president-elect N. Srinivasan is a managing director.

Tags: BCCI, Cricket, Gautam Gambhir, Indian Premier League, IPL, IPL 2011, IPL 4, IPL Auction, KKR, Sourav Ganguly