Dhoni to play for Pune in IPL

MUMBAI, India (AP):

India's limited-overs captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Suresh Raina will play for new franchises Pune and Rajkot for the coming two seasons of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

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 yesterday 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.