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A dozen players, including Shane Warne and Shane Watson, were retained Thursday by their respective franchises ahead of next month’s Indian Premier League auction.
Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virender Sehwag and Kieron Pollard were also among the retainees on the last day that the founding eight franchises can decide on keeping players who represented them in the first three seasons of the domestic Twenty20 tournament.
Each of the eight franchises can retain up to four players, only three of them Indian, ahead of the player auction on Jan. 8-9.
The defending champion Chennai Super Kings retained Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay and South African allrounder Albie Morkel, while the Mumbai Indians have reserved Tendulkar, Pollard, Harbhajan Singh and Lasith Malinga.
The Delhi Daredevils retained Sehwag, while the Royal Challengers Bangalore have kept Virat Kohli.
Warne and Watson were the only two to be retained by the former champion Rajasthan Royals.
By retaining four players, Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings are each left with only $US4.5 million ($A4.6 million) to spend either in the player auction or in buying Ranji Trophy players outside the auction.
Rajasthan Royals will have $5.9 million available to spend, while Delhi Daredevils and Royal Challengers Bangalore will each have a balance of $7.2 million available.
The remaining franchises have the full $9 million available to bid for players at the auction.
“The first stage of the process for confirming the playing squads for 2011 has gone off well,” IPL chairman Chirayu Amin said in a statement. “It is heartening to see that a majority of the founding franchises have chosen to retain players.”
The two new franchises – Team Kochi and Pune – will now have the option of signing up to four overseas players who have not previously played in the IPL. The player auction will follow after they sign their players.
The auction will feature the remaining top Indian and overseas players.
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