A day after the Board of Control for Cricket in India announced that players can be transferred for the second edition of the DLF Indian Premier League team, owners are already drawing up their wish lists.
Teams can transfer players between December 15 and January 15, 2009. The second season of the tournament will be held from April 10 to May 29, 2009.
Team owners said the hottest properties that would fetch a major premium over their current pay would be Yusuf Pathan, S Sreesanth, Shane Watson, Shane Warne, Sohail Tanveer and Shaun Marsh amongst others.
None of these six players featured among the five highest-paid cricketers, Indian or international, ahead of the first edition of the tournament in May and June.
Team owners said they would be ready to pay 50 to 100 per cent premium for these players, based on their performance in the first edition of DLF IPL.
For instance, a source from infrastructure company GMR -- owner of the Delhi Daredevils -- said the team was considering roping in a bowler, who was most likely to be Sreesanth.
"No performer will accept an increase in his price lower than 50 per cent," said Sonu Lakhwani, associate vice-president, Percept Talent Management.
"Anyone getting anything less than that may as well stay with the existing owner team and build loyalty," Lakhwani added.
Also, with the pool to expand to players from England for the first time next year, the hottest properties on which team-owners are putting their money include Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood.
Both are expected to earn over $750,000. The highest bid for an international cricketer for IPL earlier was Andrew Symonds of Australia for $1.35 million.
The board has allowed players to be traded among the eight teams. Under the broad rules -- the details are yet to be worked out the owner team will get 75 per cent of the transfer fee and the cricketer concerned the remaining 25 per cent.
Team owners can approach a rival with an offer to buy a player. Owners, however, have to take a final call on the offer.
Earlier, each team owner was allowed to spend up to $5 million as a fee for hiring the team. This cap has also been removed.
Some team owners have welcomed this. In an earlier interview, Vijay Rekhi, president, UB Group, which owns the Royal Challengers Bangalore (Vijay Mallya's team) said, "We would like to retire players who haven't played or performed. Since the cricketers are contracted for three years, if any player needs to be substituted then we have to buy out their contracts. To manage this within the limit of $5 million is not an easy task."
Meanwhile, franchise owners are awaiting an official communication from BCCI. "Once we get a formal communication detailing the transfer rules, we will decide our course of action," said P K Iyer, executive director, Deccan Chronicle, owner of the Hyderabad team Deccan Chargers.
