05 December,2010 08:16 AM IST | | Sai Mohan
The two new Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises were originally given an option of signing up to four players from a list of players who were not part of any of the eight original IPL franchises in the first three seasons.
Kochi and Pune were allowed to sign the likes of Michael Clarke, Mitchell Johnson, Stuart Broad and even Brian Lara prior to January's auction. This was seen as a way to give the new franchises 'a firsthand advantage' over the existing teams.
It must also be noted that if either Pune or Kochi sign players ahead of the auction, their salary cap of $ 9 million will also be reduced by the same amount as the salary cap for existing franchises retaining players.
However, with the Kochi franchise still to set the ball rolling, Sahara Pune Warriors have been unable to sign players, an insider in the Sahara-owned team confirmed. "Because Kochi hasn't been able to come on board yet, we haven't been able to make any signings. Unless and until the eighth team is finalised, we cannot make any offers to players. Nothing has been activated from our side yet.u00a0
u00a0"We are keenly waiting for the eighth team to arrive. Also, we have not been conveyed anything by BCCI on this front recently. We are just waiting for things to become clearer," he added.
On Saturday, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Secretary N Srinivasan, Baroda Cricket Association (BCA) president Chirayu Amin, BCCI President Shashank Manohar, IPL CEO Sundar Raman and BCCI Vice-President Arun Jaitley met to discuss issues relating to IPL here at the Reliance Stadium.
They were invited by Amin to watch the third one-dayer between India and New Zealand. Today, IPL's Governing Council will meet to take a final call on the fate of the Kochi franchise.
It is learnt from Board sources that the franchise is set to get the nod to take part in IPL-4.
If that happens, Pune can start to contact the likes of Clarke and Lara to rope them in before January's auction.
