Pant parts way with Delhi Capitals, Klaasen pips Kohli as top retention

New Delhi, Oct 31: Flamboyant keeper-batter Rishabh Pant's nine-year association with Delhi Capitals officially ended on Thursday while South African Heinrich Klaasen with Rs 23 crore valuation pipped none other than peerless Virat Kohli (Rs 21 crore) to emerge as the top-most retention for the upcoming IPL season.

KKR's IPL winning captain Shreyas Iyer is also back in the auction pool after his discussions with the management failed while Mumbai Indians retained all their five star players, including skipper Hardik Panndya, national captains Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, pace ace Jasprit Bumrah and young NT Tilak Varma. They exhausted full retention purse of Rs 75 crore.

Punjab Kings have spent just Rs 9.5 crore, the least amount for retention, on two uncapped players Shashank Singh and Prabhsimran Singh. They would go into the auction with highest purse of Rs 110.5 crore and also four RTM (Right To Match) cards.

DC's ownership structure is a complicated one with co-owners GMR and JSW getting powers to control management for two years at a time. Hence Pant, who is a JSW recruit, wasn't the top choice for GMR management headed by co-owner Kiran Grandhi.

Moment GMR took charge, they removed earlier coaching management including former Director of Cricket Sourav Ganguly and brought in Venugopal Rao.