Mumbai: The cricketers of two suspended teams Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals are being auctioned to Pune and Rajkot franchisee for next two editions to be held in 2016 and 2017.
Seven out of the ten players drafter have been from CSK. A majority of the Royals will go back into the auction pool. Remember, there are some exciting players available there. Watson, Binny, Southee, Samson to choose from.
Rajeev Shukla, IPL Chairman, in the Press Conference:
"The response we have got during bidding process shows how IPL is still popular and credibility is not lost. We are not against Pakistan. Franchise and we will decide on Pakistan players in IPL."
Sanjeev Goenka's New Rising won the bid for the Pune franchise while Intex won the bid for Rajkot after a reverse bidding process held in Delhi on December 8 .
Five picks of Rajkot: Ravindra Jadeja, Suresh Raina, Brendon McCullum, James Faulkner, Dwayne Bravo
Five picks of Pune: - Dhoni, Rahane, Ashwin, Steve Smith, Faf du Plessis
Both the CSK and RR will be allowed back in the league after serving out their two year suspension.
"The two new franchises have the option to pick a maximum of five players from the draft. Those players who are unsold will be put up for being chosen at the players' auction to be held in next February," a BCCI source had told PTI ahead of the draft.
"The trading window (for buying players left free by other franchises) also commences on December 15 and ends on December 31," the source added.
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 held in eight years ago.
