IPL players on auction today; Icons to earn most

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The much anticipated player auction for the IPL will be held in Mumbai today. The franchisee owners are putting together their strategy to get the ideal, but it won't be just about getting the big players, reports CNBC-TV18.

Delhi's IPL team, owned by the GMR Group is unveiling its name in the capital. The team will be called 'Delhi's Daredevils' and they have already had a shot in the arm - Virender Sehwag has been approved as an icon player and it's now a case of finding the right team for him to lead.

Mukesh Ambani's Mumbai team is expected to make a serious pitch to get the odd pair of Harbhajan Singh and Andrew Symonds onboard. Sachin Tendulkar's input as the team's icon player will be crucial and the name of Lalchand Rajput as the city team's possible Coach is doing the rounds.

Preity Zinta's Mohali team is seeking a balance between high profile and utility players. The decision will be in the hands of Captain Yuvraj Singh and Coach Tom Moody and team owner Zinta is said to be keen on Sreesanth.

In Kolkata though, there may be an interesting twist - if SRK is able to get good friend Dhoni on board, then Sourav Ganguly may lose captaincy. The Chennai superkings are likely to follow a different tactic - besides going for local players like Dinesh Karthik, they will look at signing on some Sri Lankans like Jayasuriya and Murali to leverage the geographical advantage of the region, although they aren't revealing their cards yet.

N Srinivasan , MD, India Cements , said, "With USD 5 million cap on spending, there is no doubt that the teams will have to be smart with their spending."

Afterall at the end of the day, the teams that will win won't just be the ones with the superstars, but the right balance. But what's more interesting is who will sell for how much and what are the basic rules of the auction?

What are the rules?

The Indian Premier League, a Twenty-20 tournament, was set up by the BCCI last September soon after the Zee Group launched a rival Indian cricket league. Big names bid big money to own the eight teams. Now, these big names are going shopping once again, this time to get the best of the world's cricketing talent.

As many as 80 cricketers will be up for auction on Wednesday and will go to the team that bids the highest price for them. Brace yourselves, because each bid is expected to be quite a bouncer!

Where does the bidding start from?

- Each player has a 'base player fee'. That's the fee at which the bidding for that player starts. Minimum bid has to be from USD 100,000.

- The likes of MS Dhoni, Adam Gilchrist or Shane Warne have the highest base price of USD 400,000  or Rs. 1.6 crore and are expected to breach the USD 1 million mark during bidding.

Who are the Icon Players?

- There are five Icon Players and they won't be up for sale.
- They can play for their respective cities.
- They will be paid 15% more than the highest auctioned player.

These players are -

- Saurav Ganguly - Kolkata
- Yuvraj Singh - Mohali
- Virender Sehwag - Delhi
- Rahul Dravid - Bangalore
- Sachin Tendulkar - Mumbai

What are the rules for international players?

- A maximum of eight international players can be part of a squad.
- But only four of them can be part of the actual playing 11.

Each team will have a minimum of 16 players and the contract with the players will be for a fixed term of three years.

It looks like the stage is set for cricket's biggest revolution since the Kerry Packer era, so let the bidding start and let the games begin!