IPL: Williamson, Bravo among big names let go

IPL giants Chennai Super Kings on Tuesday ended their hugely successful 11-year association with legendary all-rounder Dwayne Bravo while Sunrisers Hyderabad released star batter, Kane Williamson, ahead of the cash-rich league's mini-auction.

Tuesday was the last date to announce the full list of players retained and released by the teams ahead of the mini-auction, scheduled to be held on December 23 in Kochi.

The day started with the Mumbai Indians' longstanding West Indian all-rounder Kieron Pollard announcing his retirement from the IPL, only to be drafted as the five-time champions' batting coach. Mumbai Indians have released as many as 13 players.

In other big movements, Punjab Kings have released their last edition's captain Mayank Agarwal, while West Indies skipper Nicholas Pooran was released by Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Besides Bravo, CSK have also decided to let go of England's death-overs specialist Chris Jordan, a move that might surprise some. CSK chief executive officer Kasi Viswanathan said, "It's a very tough call. As far as retention is concerned and the releasing of players, you know that CSK has always been very passionate with the players, and they have also been contributing to the franchise. It becomes very difficult for us to decide while releasing the players.

"The contribution they have made to CSK will always be cherished and we know that if there is an opportunity for any of them to come back, they will be back in CSK colours,"

As far as CSK's captaincy is concerned, Kasi made it clear that their talisman Mahendra Singh Dhoni will lead the side.

"Everybody knows that Thalaiva (Dhoni) will lead the side and he will do his best and the team will do well," he said.

Meanwhile, Delhi Capitals have released four players which include Indians Mandeep Singh, KS Bharat and Ashwin Hebbar and New Zealand wicketkeeper-batter Tim Seifert.

The Delhi Capitals have also traded all-rounder Shardul Thakur to Kolkata Knight Riders and brought in all-rounder Aman Khan in his place.

Inaugural edition winners Rajasthan Royals have released nine players in total comprising four Indians and five overseas players, leaving them with a purse of Rs 13.2 crore. The players released include James Neesham, Nathan Coulter-Nile, and Rassie van der Dussen, among others.

RR's director of cricket, Kumar Sangakkara said it was tough to make some decisions after the Royals finished as runners-up in the last edition.

" As a high-performance team, you have to keep evolving and looking for squad-enhancing opportunities in order to stay at the top. Our ambition is to go that extra mile in IPL 2023, and hence some decisions have been made which give us greater flexibility in the auction to compete with other teams and go for players who we feel can add value to this squad," Sangakkara said.

While Sunrisers Hyderabad will have the highest remaining purse of Rs 42.25 crore heading into the auction, Punjab Kings and Lucknow Super Giants will have Rs 32.2 crore and 23.35 crore, respectively, in their hands.

This time the teams will also receive an extra Rs 5 crore to spend at the auction.

Jason Behrendorff, Aneeshwar Gautam, Chama Milind, Luvnith Sisodia, Sherfane Rutherford were the players released by Royal Challengers Bangalore, leaving them with a purse of Rs 8.75 crore.

Lockie Ferguson, Dominic Drakes, Gurkeerat Singh and Jason Roy were among the six players released by reigning champions Gujarat Titans.

As far as SRH are concerned, Williamson was their most expensive player (Rs 14 crore). While spending eight years with them, the Kiwi scored 2101 runs at an average of 36.22 and a strike rate of 126.03.

He played 76 matches for the Sunrisers and captained them 46 times. However, SRH had an underwhelming season under his rein as out of 14 games, Hyderabad won only six last year.

In addition to Williamson, Pooran's departure will free up Rs 10.75 crore, making SRH the team with the biggest purse going into the mini-auction.

At Rs 12 crore, Agarwal was the first player Punjab retained ahead of the mega auction last year. Agarwal, who was appointed captain for the 2022 season, finished with only 196 runs in 12 innings at an average of 16.33 and a strike rate of 122.50.

The following players from the 10 franchises were retained & released from the squad:

Chennai Super Kings

Retained Players:  Ambati Rayudu, Deepak Chahar, Devon Conway*, Dwaine Pretorius*, Maheesh Theekshana*, Matheesha Pathirana*, Mitchell Santner*, Moeen Ali*, MS Dhoni, Mukesh Choudhary, Prashant Solanki, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Ravindra Jadeja, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shivam Dube, Simarjeet Singh, Subhranshu Senapati, Tushar Deshpande

Released Players: Adam Milne*, C.Hari Nishaanth, Chris Jordan*, Dwayne Bravo*, K.Bhagath Varma, K.M Asif, N. Jagadeesan, Robin Uthappa

Delhi Capitals

Retained Players:  Aman Khan (T), Anrich Nortje*, Axar Patel, Chetan Sakariya, David Warner*, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kuldeep Yadav, Lalit Yadav, Lungisani Ngidi*, Mitchell Marsh*, Mustafizur Rahman*, Pravin Dubey, Prithvi Shaw, Ripal Patel, Rishabh Pant, Rovman Powell*, Sarfaraz Khan, Syed Khaleel Ahmed, Vicky Ostwal, Yash Dhull

Released Players: Ashwin Hebbar, K.S. Bharat, Mandeep Singh, Tim Seifert*

Gujarat Titans

Retained Players: Abhinav Sadarangani, Alzarri Joseph*, B. Sai Sudharsan, Darshan Nalkande, David Miller*, Hardik Pandya, Jayant Yadav, Matthew Wade*, Mohammad Shami, Noor Ahmad*, Pradeep Sangwan, R. Sai Kishore, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan*, Shubman Gill, Vijay Shankar, Wriddhiman Saha, Yash Dayal

Released Players: Dominic Drakes*, Gurkeerat Singh, Jason Roy*, Varun Aaron

Kolkata Knight Riders

Retained Players:  Andre Russell*, Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Lockie Ferguson (T)*, Nitish Rana, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (T)*, Rinku Singh, Shardul Thakur (T), Shreyas Iyer, Sunil Narine*, Tim Southee*, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy, Venkatesh Iyer

Released Players:  Aaron Finch*, Abhijeet Tomar, Ajinkya Rahane, Alex Hales*, Ashok Sharma, Baba Indrajith, Chamika Karunaratne*, Mohammad Nabi*, Pat Cummins*, Pratham Singh, Ramesh Kumar, Rasikh Dar, Sam Billings*, Sheldon Jackson, Shivam Mavi

Lucknow Super Giants

Retained Players:  Avesh Khan, Ayush Badoni, Deepak Hooda, K. Gowtham, Karan Sharma, KL Rahul, Krunal Pandya, Kyle Mayers*, Manan Vohra, Marcus Stoinis*, Mark Wood*, Mayank Yadav, Mohsin Khan, Quinton De Kock*, Ravi Bishnoi

Released Players: Andrew Tye*, Ankit Singh Rajpoot, Dushmanta Chameera*, Evin Lewis*, Jason Holder*, Manish Pandey, Shahbaz Nadeem

Mumbai Indians

Retained Players: Akash Madhwal, Arjun Tendulkar, Dewald Brevis*, Hrithik Shokeen, Ishan Kishan, Jason Behrendorff (T)*, Jasprit Bumrah, Jofra Archer*, Kumar Kartikeya Singh, Mohd. Arshad Khan, N. Tilak Varma, Ramandeep Singh, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Tim David*, Tristan Stubbs*

Released Players:  Anmolpreet Singh, Aryan Juyal, Basil Thampi, Daniel Sams*, Fabian Allen*, Jaydev Unadkat, Kieron Pollard*, Mayank Markande, Murugan Ashwin, Rahul Buddhi, Riley Meredith*, Sanjay Yadav, Tymal Mills*

Punjab Kings

Retained Players:  Shikhar Dhawan, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh, Harpreet Brar, Raj Angad Bawa, Prabhsimran Singh, Rishi Dhawan, Jitesh Sharma, Baltej Singh Dhanda, Atharva Taide, Liam Livingstone*, Kagiso Rabada*, Jonny Bairstow*, Nathan Ellis*, Bhanuka Rajapakse*

Released Players:  Mayank Agarwal, Odean Smith*, Vaibhav Arora, Benny Howell*, Ishan Porel, Ansh Patel, Prerak Mankad, Sandeep Sharma, Writtick Chatterjee

Rajasthan Royals

Retained Players:  Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Jurel, Jos Buttler *, K.C Cariappa, Kuldeep Sen, Kuldip Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Obed Mccoy*, Prasidh Krishna, R. Ashwin, Riyan Parag, Sanju Samson, Shimron Hetmyer*, Trent Boult*, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Yuzvendra Chahal

Released Players: Anunay Singh, Corbin Bosch*, Daryl Mitchell*, James Neesham*, Karun Nair, Nathan Coulter-Nile*, Rassie Van Der Dussen*, Shubham Garhwal, Tejas Baroka

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Retained Players: Akash Deep, Anuj Rawat, David Willey*, Dinesh Karthik, Faf Du Plessis*, Finn Allen*, Glenn Maxwell*, Harshal Patel, Josh Hazlewood*, Karn Sharma, Mahipal Lomror, Mohammed Siraj, Rajat Patidar, Shahbaz Ahamad, Siddharth Kaul, Suyash Prabhudessai, Virat Kohli, Wanindu Hasaranga*

Released Players: Aneeshwar Gautam, Chama Milind, Luvnith Sisodia, Sherfane Rutherford*

Sunrisers Hyderabad

Retained Players: Abdul Samad, Abhishek Sharma, Aiden Markram*, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Fazalhaq Farooqi*, Glenn Phillips*, Kartik Tyagi, Marco Jansen*, Rahul Tripathi, T. Natarajan, Umran Malik, Washington Sundar

Released Players: Jagadeesha Suchith, Kane Williamson*, Nicholas Pooran*, Priyam Garg, R Samarth, Romario Shepherd*, Saurabh Dubey, Sean Abbott*, Shashank Singh, Shreyas Gopal, Sushant Mishra, Vishnu Vinod