SRH Likely To Retain Five Players; Heinrich Klaasen's Price Reported To Be Rs 23 Crore!

South African hard-hitting wicket-keeper batter is likely to be the first of the five retentions of Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) for the next season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). (More Cricket News)

Cricket news websites ESPNCricinfo and Cricbuzz both reported on Wednesday that the Hyderabad franchise has finalised retentions of their captain Pat Cummins, opener Abhishek Sharma and wicket-keeper Klaasen. The websites also added that the previous season's runners-up are closing in on retentions of Travis Head and Nitish Kumar Reddy as well.

As per reports, Klaasen will be the first retention and get a whooping Rs 23 crore. No one in the history of the Indian Premier League has been retained at such a massive price. Klaasen was bought by SRH for Rs 5.25 crore ahead of the 2023 IPL.

Cummins and Abhishek will be retained at Rs 18 crore and Rs 14 crore respectively. Talks with Head and Reddy are still underway. All five players played key roles in helping Sunrisers Hyderabd reach the final of the last IPL season where they were defeated by Kolkata Knight Riders.

Recently, BCCI had announced the rules for retaining players ahead of the mega auction before next IPL. Teams were allowed to retain at most six players but only five of them could be capped international players. Franchises can also use Right To Match cards at the auction to buy back their players in place of the retentions they choose not to make.

The price band decided for the retentions were Rs 18 crore, Rs 14 crore, and Rs 11 crore for the first three capped retentions, and Rs 18 crore and Rs 14 crore for the next two. Uncapped players can be retained at just Rs 4 crore.

However, reports now suggest that the franchises are allowed to distribute the total pot of Rs 75 crore among the five capped players as per their convenience.

The two most successful franchises in IPL, Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings, have both traditionally retained high number of players. If SRH retain the above-mentioned five players, they will go into the auction with one Right To Match card which they can use to buy back an uncapped player.