IPL 8: Delhi Daredevils release Pietersen, Karthik, Vijay

New Delhi, Dec 15: In a bid to start afresh in the eighth season of Indian Premier League, the Delhi Daredevils today decided to release their last edition's skipper and biggest star Kevin Pietersen along with costliest buy Dinesh Karthik and Test specialist Murali Vijay.

Delhi Daredevils' Chief Executive Officer Hemant Dua confirmed the development and also explained the reason for this decision by the management.

"Yes, we have submitted our list of releases to the IPL governing council and I can confirm that we have released Kevin Pietersen, Dinesh Karthik and Murali Vijay among the marquee players. We have only retained 11 players from the last season of IPL," Dua told PTI today.

Delhi had got back Pietersen, one of the biggest draws last season, by using their 'Right to Match' option at Rs 9 crore. He however disappointed with 294 runs in 11 matches while Karthik managed 325 in 14 matches. With dearth of good T20 wicketkeeper-batsman in the country, Karthik despite his indifferent form had fetched a whopping Rs 12.5 crore to grab a lot of eyeballs.

Asked whether it was an expensive buy, Dua explained: "It was the decision of the Daredevils management. The rationale behind releasing some of the marquee players is going into the auction with a bigger purse and also look from the perspective of being cost effective."

The CEO also said that there remains a possibility that they might re-look at any of these players during the next auction but didn't want to commit anything on this aspect. Murali Vijay, who scored two half-centuries in Adelaide Test while missing a ton by a solitary run in the second innings, had a poor IPL with only 207 runs and is now back in the auction pool.

For Pietersen, the retention would have been pretty difficult as he no longer enjoys the privilege of being an international cricketer anymore. He is freelancing in T20 tournaments across the globe but his fitness also remains a big concern. For Karthik, there has been nothing to look forward to as he has been shoddy behind the stumps and patchy in-front of it.

While some of the Indian players like Manoj Tiwary and Kedar Jadhav have been retained, the franchises decided to release Bengal captain Laxmi Ratan Shukla as he couldn't live upto the expectations of being the all-rounder that Gary Kirsten was looking forward to.

PTI