Hyderabad's new owners offered all Deccan Chargers players

Sun TV network, the new owners of the Hyderabad IPL franchise, have been offered all the current players of the now-terminated Deccan Chargers, an official said on Thursday.

"They have been offered all the players from Deccan Chargers' team; it is now their decision who they want to retain from that squad.

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"The players who will not be retained will go into the IPL Players' auction, which is likely to be held around December or January," he added, after the IPL Governing Council meeting in Mumbai.

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Sun TV network have a week to decide which players they want to retain from the current Deccan Chargers' team.

Sri Lanka's batting mainstay Kumar Sangakkara was captain of Deccan Chargers in the last edition of the IPL. The team's leading international players were South Africans Dale Steyn and JP Duminy, Australians Cameron White and Dan Christian, while Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra and Shikhar Dhawan were the top Indians.

The official also confirmed that Sun TV network's contract for the new franchise is for five years.

The total cost of the franchise at 85.05 crore per year makes it approximately 425 crore for the duration of five years.

Earlier in the day, the IPL Governing Council opened bids for the new franchise.

Sun TV Network's bid was substantially higher than that of PVP Ventures, which was 69.03 crores.

The franchise fee represents a premium of over a 100 per cent above the amount paid by DCHL for the Hyderabad franchise in 2008.

The BCCI had floated tenders for a new IPL franchise after terminating Deccan Chargers' contract on September 15 but the team owners, Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited, challenged it at the Bombay high court.