Indian superstars Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh as well as South African veteran Jacques Kallis and out-of-favor England batsman Kevin Petersen are among the 16 marquee players who will be the first to go under the hammer when the IPL auction kicks off on February 12. The marquee players list originally included the likes of Robin Uthappa and Praveen Kumar who have been trimmed from the final updated list.
The marquee players’ list, which has been split into two sets of eight players each, also includes Mahela Jayawardene, Mitchell Johnson, M Vijay, David Warner, George Bailey, Faf du Plessis, Michael Hussey, Dinesh Karthik, Zaheer Khan, Brendon McCullum, Amit Mishra and Darren Sammy, who are all expected to fetch lucrative pay-cheques.
The final auction list has been trimmed to 514 players from the original 895 names. There are 30 players listed at the maximum base price of Rs 2 crore (US $320,00 approximately) which includes 11 Indians.
Meanwhile, Australia fast bowler James Pattinson, who was in the original list of players with a base price of Rs 2 crore, is not there in the updated list.
There are 219 capped and 295 uncapped players in the list with the uncapped players also set to go under the hammer for the first time in the auction itself. The IPL organsiers have also decided to carry out the bidding proces in rupees.
The absence of uncapped players from the auction has been a topic of controversy in the past, with franchises claiming that the uncapped players have been lured with under-the-table deals. Moreover, with franchises allowed to include only 9 foreigners in their squad, the selection of uncapped players will play a major role in their destinies.
