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IPL Auction
File photo of owner of Mumbai Indians Neeta Ambani (L) and Bollywood actor and owner of Kolkatta Knight Riders, Shah Rukh Khan speaking during a a post-players' auction press conference Getty

Click here to follow IBTimes UK's LIVE BLOG of the IPL 2016 auction

With the 2016 Indian Premier League (IPL) due to kick off in April, the franchises are set for a bidding war as big names from the world of cricket will go under the hammer at Bengaluru's (Bangalore) ITC Royal Gardenia on Saturday, 6 February.

Where to watch live

The auction starts at 3:30am GMT/9am IST. There is no live coverage of the auction in the UK. Viewers in India can watch it on Sony Six and Set Max, the official broadcasters of the IPL. Neo Cricket will broadcast it in the US as the auction starts at 10:30pm ET (on 5 February).

Overview

For the ninth season of the IPL, a total of 351 players will go under the hammer out of whom 230 are Indian players. Those up for bidding include Ishant Sharma, Shane Watson, Kevin Pietersen, Yuvraj Singh, Dale Steyn, Aaron Finch, Martin Guptill and Dwayne Smith.

Each franchise must maintain a minimum squad size of 16 players and a maximum of 27, including a maximum of nine foreign players. Teams can spend a maximum of Rs 660m (£6.72m, $9.75m). The budget reduces, depending on the number of players retained by a franchise. Every player bought in the auction will be given a year's contract, with the franchise having an option to extend it for one more year.

Royal Challengers Bangalore have released the most number of players — 14. The Delhi Daredevils have allowed 11 players to leave and they have got back into the auction pool. The Daredevils have released the second highest number of players.

Here is the list of players released by IPL franchises:

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Vijay Zol, Ashok Dinda, Dinesh Karthik, Iqbal Abdullah, Jalaj Saxena, Manvinder Bisla, Sandeep Warrier, Shishir Bhavane, Subramaniam Badrinath, Yogesh Takawale, Nic Maddinson, Darren Sammy, Rilee Rossouw, Sean Abbott.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Veer Pratap Singh, Aditya Garhwal, KC Cariappa, Sumit Narwal, Vaibhav Rawal, Patrick Cummins, Ryan ten Doeschate, James Neesham, Azhar Mahmood, Johan Botha.

Mumbai Indians: Aditya Tare, Abhimanyu Mithun, Pawan Suyal, Pragyan Ojha, Aiden Blizzard, Aaron Finch, Alex Hales, Ben Hilfenhaus, Colin Munro, Josh Hazlewood.

Kings XI Punjab: Karanveer Singh, Parvinder Awana, Shivam Sharma, Virender Sehwag, Yogesh Golwakar, Beuran Hendricks, George Bailey, Thisara Perera.

Delhi Daredevils: Yuvraj Singh, CM Gautam, Domnic Joseph Muthuswamy, Jaydev Unadkat, KK Jiyaz, Kona Srikar Bharat, Manoj Tiwary, Angelo Mathews, Gurinder Sandhu, Marcus Stoinis, Travis Head.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Chama Milind, Hanuma Vihari, Ishant Sharma, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Prasanth Padmanabhan, Praveen Kumar, Dale Steyn, Kevin Pietersen, Ravi Bopara.

Kings XI Punjab