How much money can each IPL team spend in mega auction?

Cricket Desk: The wait is finally over as retention lists of all eight existing Indian Premier League (IPL) teams are out.  All sides were asked to submit the retention list by Monday (November 30). With a mega auction taking place ahead of the 2022 season, each team had the option of retaining a maximum of just four players, out of which only two can be foreigners.

While several sides used all of their four retention cards, several opted to save money for auctions. Notably, salaries of players are determined by the number of retentions made by their franchise. Franchises making all four retentions spent INR 42 crore from their salary purse of INR 90 crore. In such case, the first, second, third and fourth-retained player received INR 16, 12, 8 and 6 crore respectively.

Teams retaining three players shredded INR 33 crore from their pocket with the first, second and third-retained player receiving 15, 11 and 7 crore respectively. Franchises opting to retain two players were asked to offer INR 14 and 10 crore to their players. Although none of the sides retained just one player, they would have spent INR 14 crore if they opted to do so.

MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli retained by their respective franchises

With these equations being in the picture, finalizing the retention list wouldn’t have been easy for franchises. Meanwhile, defending champions Chennai Super Kings used their all four cards to get MS Dhoni, Moeen Ali, Ravindra Jadeja and Ruturaj  Gaikwad on board. As far as defending champions Mumbai Indians are concerned, they went with Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Kieron Pollard an Suryakumar Yadav as their retentions.

Sunrisers Hyderabad seem pretty keen to revamp their side as skipper Kane Williamson is their only retention among capped players. Umran Malik and Abdul Samad are the other two retentions. With the duo being uncapped, they will get a sum of INR 4 crore apiece.

Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders have also used all of their four retention cards. While Delhi Capitals retained Rishabh Pant, Prithvi Shaw, Anrich Nortje and Axar Patel, KKR kept Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy and Venkatesh Iyer.

Punjab Kings went with Mayank Agarwal and uncapped Arshdeep Singh as their retentions. Speaking of Rajasthan Royals, the inaugural-season champions retained Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal. At last, Royal Challengers Bangalore retained their former skipper Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, and Mohammed Siraj.

Purse Remaining with each IPL franchise after retention:

1. Delhi Capitals – INR 47.5 crore 

2. Chennai Super Kings – INR 48 crore 

3. Royal Challengers Bangalore – INR 57 crore

4. Kolkata Knight Riders – INR 48 crore 

5. Mumbai Indians – INR 48 crore 

6. Punjab Kings – INR 72 crore 

7. Rajasthan Royals – INR 62 crore 

8. Sunrisers Hyderabad – INR 68 crore