RCB to retain big hitter Gayle, Kohli, de Villiers

 With Friday being the deadline for retaining players ahead of the 2014 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) took an assured step forward on Thursday by retaining three players, even as other franchises were still engaged in last-minute calculations.

Royal Challengers announced that they would retain Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle and A B de Villiers. They also appointed Daniel Vettori head coach in place of South African Ray Jennings, who, in all probability, would assume some role with Delhi Daredevils.

Allan Donald would be RCB’s new bowling coach. Trent Woodhill, who has had a coaching stint with New Zealand and Pakistan, would be the batting and fielding coach of the side.

Apart from RCB, none of the other teams had officially released the list of players they would retain. Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) are keen to retain five players, the maximum allowed. Mumbai Indians might retain Rohit Sharma, Kieron Pollard, Harbhajan Singh and Dinesh Karthik, while it’s a toss up between Mitchell Johnson and Lasith Malinga for the second foreigner’s slot.

CSK is all set to retain skipper M S Dhoni, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Suresh Raina and West Indian Dwayne Bravo. However, the Daredevils may not retain an out-of-form Virender Sehwag, while they may keep two of their three key foreign players, David Warner, Kevin Pietersen and Ross Taylor. Kolkata Knight Riders were all set to retain skipper Gautam Gambhir and West Indian spinner Sunil Narine.

Rajasthan Royals, with Rahul Dravid as mentor, would retain three Indians, Stuart Binny, Ajinkya Rahane and Sanju Samson, besides Aussie Shane Watson, who was most likely to lead the side.

The new IPL regulations allow a franchise to retain a maximum of five players from the squad of 2013. A franchise would be levied Rs 12.5 crore, Rs 9.5 crore, Rs 7.5 crore, Rs 5.5 crore and Rs 4 crore respectively from the auction amount for the first, second, third, fourth and fifth player retained.