Three-time champion Mumbai Indians, two-time winner Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Daredevils and Royal Challengers Bangalore retained three players at the Vivo-IPL player retention event here on Thursday.
The eight franchises together retained 18 players, including the lone uncapped player in batsman Sarfaraz Khan who agreed to play for a sum of ₹1.75 crore, although the guideline price for the uncapped player was ₹3 crore.
India captain Virat Kohli was retained by RCB for an agreed upon price of ₹17 crore, an amount that will be deducted from the franchise’s salary purse of ₹80 crore for the 11th edition.
RCB nominated South African batsman A. B. de Villiers as the second retention player at a cost of ₹11 crore.
As expected, CSK retained Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja, Mumbai Indians nominated Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah and Delhi Daredevils chose Chris Morris, Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer.
Royals retain Steve Smith
There was no other significant surprise with inaugural winner Rajasthan Royals retaining a lone player in Australian captain Steve Smith and Kings XI Punjab going for all-rounder Axar Patel at an agreed sum of ₹6.75 crore.
Reflecting on CSK’s return to the league, team director George John said: “We are excited. We are looking forward to building a team. We just want to retain the core, which is what we have always done. We are also taking CSR initiatives and putting an app. We are very excited.”
The BCCI acting-secretary Amitabh Choudhary congratulated the new five-season media rights holder Star India and title sponsor Vivo, saying “tt’s been an unbelievable decade, IPL has grown by leaps and bounds. It’s been an exhibition of talent in every single game of the IPL.”
Mumbai Indians’ Akash Ambani was happy to say that Hardik and Bumrah have been the find of MI. “Rohit is synonymous with MI and Hardik and Jasprit have become the pillars of the Indian team; now they are also MI’s.”
Ponting to coach DD
Meanwhile, Ricky Ponting, who was a player and subsequently the coach of Mumbai Indians for two years in 2015 and 2016, has been named Delhi Daredevils’ coach.
Hemant Dua, CEO, DD, announced the former Australian captain’s appointment at the IPL player retention event here on Thursday.
Ponting replaces Rahul Dravid, who is now the coach of the India under-19 and A teams.
