India's limited-overs skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, along with his teammates Ravindra Jadeja, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina and Ravichandran Ashwin, among others, will be up for grabs for the two new IPl teams in the draft to be held here on Tuesday.
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 Decmber 8 to replace suspended teams Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals for the next two editions to be held in 2016 and 2017.
Also available for picking by the Twenty20 league's two new franchises are other top international stars such as New Zealander Brendon McCullum, Australia's Shane Watson, now retired from international cricket, and current captain Steven Smith, and West Indian all-rounder Dwayne Bravo from a total of 50 cricketers, who played for suspended IPl teams CSK and RR in the last edition earlier this year.
Pune will be given the choice to pick the players first because they were the lowest bidders (negative bids) to buy the new team for two years in the draft to be held at the Mumbai Cricket Association's recereation centre at the Bandra Kurla Complex.
The bidding process for the two new franchises was necessitated by the suspension of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals for the involvement of some of their officials and co-owners in the 2013 IPl spot-fixing scandal, which was probed by the Supreme Court-appointed Justice (retd) R M lodha committee.
However, both the CSK and RR will be allowed back in the league after serving out their suspension.
The cricketers from the two suspended franchises will be divided into two groups of capped and uncapped and the top names will be sold through the draft system. The two new teams will have a minimum of `40 crore and a maximum of `66 crore to buy players.
"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 said ahead of the IPl 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.
Dhoni, who led the Super Kings for eight seasons, is expected to be in the first list and the franchises, choosing the first two players in the draft in which one player each will be put up to be chosen alternately, would have to shell out `12.5 crore.
It would also be interesting to note whether Rajkot guns for its home player Jadeja whose stocks have risen after he made his comeback into the Indian squad in the Test series against South Africa and shone with both ball and bat.
Other leading players who would be in the draft are CSK's Suresh Raina, Ravichandran Ashwin, Dwayne Bravo and Brendon McCullum and RR's Ajinkya Rahane, Steve Smith and Shane Watson.
As per the tender for the two new teams, the first capped player would be paid 12.5 crore while the remaining four capped players are to get `9.5 crore, `7.5 crore, `5.5 crore, and `4 crore respectively. Uncapped players can be picked for a stipulated fee of ` 4 crore.
The ninth edition of the IPl is scheduled from April 9 to May 29, 2016.
HC reserves orders on CSK plea
Chennai: The Madras High Court on Monday reserved orders on a petition filed by Chennai Super Kings challenging the orders of the Justice lodha Committee suspending it for two years.
The First Bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice T.S. Sivagnanam, reserved orders on the plea and said the petition filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy "is subject to the result of the present petition."
The court had on December one rejected a plea by Swamy for an early hearing of his PIl challenging the suspension of CSK and Rajathan Royals from IPl and made it clear that it will come up on December 14 and 15, which was scheduled earlier.
When the petition filed by CSK challenging the orders of the lodha Committee came up on Monday, BCCI informed the Court that it has not recognized CSK as franchise for IPl.
Senior counsel for BCCI A.l.Somayaji submitted that CSK Cricket limited is only a brand name of the franchise owned by India Cements limited.
He submitted that the franchise agreement was between BCCI and India Cements and India Cements has no right to assign or delegate ownership — even if it does it should be done with prior permission from BCCI.
He argued that CSK Cricket limited which got transferred the ownership from India Cements limited was not at all an aggrieved party and hence the liberty given by the Supreme Court that the aggrieved can approach the appropriate forum for remedy will not entitle CSK to file the petition.
He submitted that BCCI is a society registered under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act. If at all punishment of suspension is to be challenged, it cannot be a subject matter of writ proceedings, because it is a punishment imposed on its member as disciplinary action as per bye-laws of BCCI,he said.
He further argued that India Cements limited was fully heard by Justice lodha Committee as a franchise and "its unbecoming conduct was noticed by the Committee and at behest of the CSK Cricket limited, the high court should not go into the validity of punishment imposed."