IPL auction on February 16

The IPL player auction will be held on February 16 in Bangalore. There is no clarity on the number of players in the auction pool because the deadline for franchises to prune the original list has been deferred to February 4.

Yuvraj Singh, Kevin Pietersen and Dinesh Karthik along with South Africa Test captain Hashim Amla have attracted the highest base price of Rs 20,000,000. An additional purse of INR 30,000,000 will be available to each franchise over and above the balance accrued from the INR 600,000,000 last year along with the amount generated from the release of players.

Unlike last year, when the auction was a two-day event containing all players barring those retained by the teams, this auction will be shorter but will still be significant for a few franchises. Having released big-name players, Delhi Daredevils and Royal Challengers Bangalore are likely to be the big spenders this time. Daredevils, who managed just two wins last season to finish as the bottom-ranked team, carried out a complete overhaul by releasing 13 players. Without Pietersen, Karthik, M Vijay and Ross Taylor, Daredevils have the maximum purse available this time with INR 400,000,000.

Royal Challengers have INR 210,000,000 in their purse, having released Yuvraj who was the most expensive player last year with a bid of INR 140,000,000. Though Yuvraj finished as the team's second highest run-scorer, Royal Challengers were just above Daredevils with five wins.

Sunrisers Hyderabad have INR 208,500,000 after releasing Aaron Finch, Darren Sammy and India legspinner Amit Mishra. Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals have INR 130,000,000 each; Kings XI Punjab have INR 118,000,000, Mumbai Indians have INR 100,000,000 while Chennai Super Kings have INR 50,000,000.

In the long list of 724 names accessed by ESPNcricinfo, are England one-day captain Eoin Morgan, Indian allrounder Irfan Pathan, former Australian batsman Michael Hussey, Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews, Sri Lanka batsman Tillkaratne Dilshan, West Indies allrounder Marlon Samuels, and Australia batsman Cameron White, all of whom have a base price of INR 15,000,000.

England allrounder Ravi Bopara, Australia's Twenty20 captain Finch, India seamer Zaheer Khan fall in the INR 10,000,000 bracket. Vijay opted for a base price of INR 5,000,000.