Pune and Rajkot are temporary replacements for Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, who are suspended for two years over corruption and spot-fixing in 2013.Players from Chennai and Rajasthan were made available in a draft Tuesday for the two teams to pick five players each at the salary they were getting with their old teams. Dhoni was earning $2 million per season at Chennai while Raina used to get $1.5 million.
Australian captain Steven Smith, South African batsman Faf du Plessis and Indians Ajinkya Rahane and Ravichandran Ashwin were also selected by Pune.
Rajkot picked India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, flamboyant New Zealand batsman Brendon McCullum, Australian all-rounder James Faulkner and West Indian all-rounder Dwayne Bravo.
The remaining players from Chennai and Rajasthan will be available to Pune and Rajkot in an auction to be conducted in February.
Last week, New Rising Consortium-owned Pune and mobile phone manufacturer Intex-owned Rajkot were selected as the replacement franchises following a reverse-bidding process in which bidders were asked to discount their annual revenue share of $6 million.
New Rising gave up that revenue entirely and also committed to pay $2.4 million per year to the BCCI. Intex will pay $1.5 million per year.
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