New Delhi: India's World Cup hero Yuvraj Singh, who was the most expensive player during the IPL 7 auctions with a purse of Rs 14 crore, has been released by his franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore as the trading window for the next edition of the cricket league ended today.
Apart from Yuvraj, the biggest name to be released by any franchise was Delhi Daredevils' captain of last season Kevin Pietersen and their costliest player Dinesh Karthik, who grabbed eyeballs after being picked for a whopping Rs 12.5 crore.
Some of the other big names that were released include veteran pacer Zaheer Khan by Mumbai Indians while Test opener Murali Vijay did not find his name in the Delhi set-up as the franchise released as many as 13 players.
Among other veterans, Harbhajan Singh and Virender Sehwag have been retained by their respective franchises Mumbai Indians and Kings Xi Punjab.
Delhi Daredevils' Chief Executive Officer Hemant Dua confirmed the development and also explained the reason for this decision by the management. Daredevils will go into the auction with a purse of Rs 41 crore.
"Yes, we have submitted our list of releases to the IPL governing council and I can confirm that we have released Kevin Pietersen, Dinesh Karthik and Murali Vijay among the marquee players. We have only retained 11 players from the last season of IPL," Dua told PTI today.
Asked whether Karthik was an expensive buy, Dua said, "It was the decision of the Daredevils management. The rationale behind releasing some of the marquee players is going into the auction with a bigger purse and also look from the perspective of being cost effective."
IPL 7 runners-up Kings XI Punjab also released some big names with Cheteshwar Pujara, Lakshmipathy Balaji and Murali Karthik set to go in to the auctions pool. Pujara, who was picked up Rs 1.9 crore by KXIP, did not have a good season managing just 125 runs from six games. He spent the second half of the tournament on the bench with Punjab opener Manan Vohra replacing him in the XI.
"It is to do with Twenty20 and performance. Pujara is really a big name for Test cricket. He is a solid player, but he does not fit with the current team's composition in his role as a Twenty20 batsman. That is the same reason for the other two also," a KXIP official was quoted as stating.
While Daredevils released the maximum players, Sunrisers Hyderabad too let go of as many as 10 players including legspinner Amit Mishra, former captains Aaron Finch and Darren Sammy and Irfan Pathan. Mumbai Indians, apart from Zaheer, also released Pragyan Ojha, Ben Dunk and Krishmar Santokie.
Other notable names who will be going into the auction pool next year are Ben Hilfenhaus and David Hussey from Chennai SuperKings, Jacques Kallis from Kolkata Knight Riders, Brad Hodge from Rajasthan Royals and Muttiah Muralitharan, Albie Morkel and Ravi Rampual from RCB.
