With Clarke pulling out, the city's IPL team will do well to get either Pietersen or Flintoff

THERE'S no way messrs Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff would have hit the bed early in Jamaica today what with the auction for the second edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) getting underway in Goa, which is night time in Jamaica where they are playing a Test match against the West Indies.

Undoubtedly, Flintoff and Pietersen will be the talking point of the auction, which will not be as frenetic as last year. The very thought of their base prices $950,000 and $1,350,000, respectively, will keep the star cricketers awake. It can be recalled that the Indian players were also kept busy in Australia when last year's auction was held in Mumbai.

However, the most expensive franchise, Mumbai Indians (MI), received a major setback yesterday when Australia vice-captain Michael Clarke pulled out of the auction, and the tournament, a day before the auction citing Australia's hectic schedule.

MiD DAY learnt that MI "were seriously eyeing Clarke" for the auction, especially when the Bangalore Royal Challengers and Chennai Super Kings have decided to zero in on Pietersen and Flintoff respectively.

However, Clarke's withdrawal will now make the auction slightly more interesting with MI joining the Bangalore and Chennai franchises in the race for KP or Freddie Flintoff.

"We were targeting Clarke but now that he is unavailable, we will try and get one of the two England stars," a MI source said. "They both are so valuable that you cannot pick and choose any one of them. Anyone will be immensely important for the team."

Downsizing

The Mukesh Ambani-owned franchise seems to be on a mission to trim the squad. Last year, including the replacements for the injured players, the team had 30 players on its roster and the management wants to cut it down to 18 or 20.

As a part of the downsizing exercise, MI decided not to have any of the three South Africans Loots Bosman, Ashwell Prince and Andre Nel this year. The franchise had decided not to extend contracts with Australia's Dominic Thornley and West Indies' Dwayne Smith both of whom now feature in the list for today's auction.

The franchise has also cut down the number of domestic players severely. Besides, not deciding to renew the contract of all-rounder Siddharth Chitnis, who has been roped in by Rajasthan Royals, MI have also decided not to renew contracts with Vikrant Yeligeti, Ankit Chavan, Musaveer Khote, Rajesh Pawar, Swapnil Singh and Manish Pandey.u00a0

Rewards

This effectively means that among the domestic players, besides Abhishek Nayar, Dhawal Kulkarni, Rohan Raje and Yogesh Takawale all of whom made their mark last year only Ajinkya Rahane, Saurabh Tiwary and Pinal Shah have been retained.

Meanwhile, MI have also rewarded the performers of last season with a hike in their pay-packet from last year's $40,000. While Nayar ($1,00,000) will be the biggest beneficiary, Kulkarni ($70,000), Takawale ($75,000) and Raje ($50,000) have also received a decent hike.u00a0

IPL auction on SET MAX at 10 am. Also, follow the auction on
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