Mumbai Indians retained the maximum — 27 players, including seven from overseas — as per the list of initial squads confirmed by the nine franchises for IPL 2013.
Rajasthan Royals has retained just 14 out of 30 listed last year. The Hyderabad franchise, owned by Sun TV Network, has retained 20 from the squad which had represented Deccan Chargers.
The squad-wise breakup is: Mumbai Indians (27 retained, seven foreigners), Kolkata Knight Riders (22, 10), Pune Warriors (24, six), Royal Challengers Bangalore (20, six), Team Hyderabad (20, six), Kings XI Punjab (19, six), Delhi Daredevils (18, seven), Rajasthan Royals (14, five) and Chennai Super Kings (15, six).
According to a IPL media release, under the terms of the IPL contract, franchises extended the agreements with 179 players for 2013. Each franchise has a salary cap of up to $12.5m to spend on the squad of up to 33 (maximum 11 overseas, out of whom four can play in the starting XI).
IPL 2013’s trading window will open on November 19 and franchises will be able to sign new uncapped Indian players, including 52 players whose contracts were not extended from the same day onwards.
Franchises have from November 1 the option of re-signing the players whom they took on as temporary replacements in IPL 2012. The new date for auction will be announced, according to the media release on Thursday.
