IPL: Bravo, Williamson, Pooran among big names released ahead of auction

New Delhi: 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 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 releasing of players, you know that CSK has always been very passionate about 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, K S 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 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, and 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 2,101 runs at an average of 36.22 and a strike rate of 126.03.

He played 76 matches for 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.

List of players released by franchises

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

Chennai Super Kings: Dwayne Bravo, Robin Uthappa, Adam Milne, Hari Nishaanth, Chris Jordan, Bhagath Varma, K M Asif, Narayan Jagadeesan.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Pat Cummins, Sam Billings, Aman Khan, Shivam Mavi, Mohammad Nabi, Chamika Karunaratne, Aaron Finch, Alex Hales, Abhijeet Tomar, Ajinkya Rahane, Ashok Sharma, Baba Indrajith, Pratham Singh, Ramesh Kumar, Rasikh Salam, Sheldon Jackson.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Kane Williamson, Nicholas Pooran, Jagadeesha Suchith, Priyam Garg, Ravikumar Samarth, Romario Shepherd, Saurabh Dubey, Sean Abbott, Shashank Singh, Shreyas Gopal, Sushant Mishra, Vishnu Vinod.

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

Lucknow Super Giants: Andrew Tye, Ankit Rajpoot, Dushmantha Chameera, Evin Lewis, Jason Holder, Manish Pandey, Shahbaz Nadeem.

Gujarat Titans: Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Lockie Ferguson, Dominic Drakes, Gurkeerat Singh, Jason Roy, Varun Aaron.

Delhi Capitals: Tim Seifert, Mandeep Singh, KS Bharat, Ashwin Hebbar.

Rajasthan Royals: Karun Nair, Anunay Singh, Tejas Baroka, Shubham Garhwal, James Neesham, Daryl Mitchell, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Rassie van der Dussen, Corbin Bosch.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Jason Behrendorff, Aneeshwar Gautam, Chama Milind, Luvnith Sisodia, Sherfane Rutherford.