Eight overseas players in the highest bracket for IPL auction

February 12 – Eight overseas players and two Indian players have chosen to be slotted in the highest bracket of the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction with a base price of two crore rupees ($275,000), India’s cricket board (BCCI) said on Thursday.

Australia’s Steve Smith and Glenn Maxwell, England’s Moeen Ali, Sam Billings, Liam Plunkett, Jason Roy and Mark Wood and Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan are in the bracket along with veteran Indian spinners Harbhajan Singh and Kedar Jadhav.

A total of 292 cricketers — 164 Indians, 125 overseas players and three from Associate Nations — will go under the hammer when the auction takes place in Chennai on Feb. 18.

The list was trimmed down from 1,114 players who had registered after the eight teams submitted their shortlists of players.

The annual tournament is set to be played between April and May this year.

Smith, who captained the Rajasthan Royals, was one of eight players released last month by the franchise which finished last in the eight-team league. However, they retained the English trio of Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and Jofra Archer.

Maxwell was among nine released by Kings XI Punjab after an underwhelming season and the franchise have the biggest salary cap available with 14 slots to fill, which includes five overseas slots.

Royal Challengers Bangalore, led by Indian skipper Virat Kohli, have the most available slots with 11 to be filled which includes three overseas slots.

The oldest player on the list is England’s 42-year-old Nayan Doshi, son of former Indian bowler Dilip, while the youngest is Afghanistan’s uncapped spinner Noor Ahmad who is only 16.

The final list also includes Arjun Tendulkar, son of Indian batting great Sachin, with the 21-year-old who played for Mumbai in the domestic Twenty20 championship listed as an all-rounder with a base price of 20 lakh rupees ($27,500). (Reuters)