Retained for Rs 4cr, Vohra gets Rs 35 lakh; Virat highest paid

Tribune news service

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New Delhi, January 1

Kings XI Punjab sprang a huge surprise when they retained Punjab player Manan Vohra in 2014. It wasn’t his retention per se that was surprising; the surprise was on account of what his retention meant in financial terms — the franchise, as per the retention formula, had retained him for Rs 4 crore.

Although the Chandigarh boy was, still is, one of the more talented and stylish batsmen around, it was still quite astonishing to see a franchise splurging that sort of money on an uncapped player.

With the BCCI making the salaries of the retained players public on Friday, it has emerged that Vohra gets a salary of Rs 35 lakh, not Rs 4 crore, the amount he was retained for.

Interestingly, his is not an isolated case (see box). There are several players who get salaries much different from what they had been retained for.

Virat Kohli, for instance, actually takes home Rs 15 crore, though he was retained for Rs 12.5 crore. It makes him the highest paid in the IPL, ahead of MS Dhoni (Rs 12.5 crore) and Shikhar Dhawan (Rs 12.5 crore). This discrepancy in the amount the players are retained for and what they actually get raises a few question marks on the retention policy.

As for the players bought by the two new franchises, Pune and Rajkot, through draft, they will continue to draw the salary that their previous franchises paid them.