Pietersen axed by IPL side

Cape Town - South African-born England batsman Kevin Pietersen has been dropped by his IPL team, the Delhi Daredevils.

According to the NDTV Sports website, Pietersen, 34, whose contract was worth around £800 000, is one of 14 players leaving the IPL franchise in a clear out following their poor season last year.

Pietersen scored 294 runs in 11 matches at an average of 29.40 as the Daredevils finished last in the standings, wining only two of their 14 matches.

Pietersen, who captained Delhi last year, is able to enter the IPL auction early next year in a bid to find a new club but is unlikely to attract such a high deal.

Delhi have also released Yuvraj Singh, Ross Taylor, Dinesh Kartik and Murali Vijay, as well as South African duo Wayne Parnell and Imran Tahir.

Pietersen is currently in Australia playing for the Melbourne Stars in the Big Bash. His county future is uncertain, too, after his registration was cancelled by Surrey last year.

Released players by IPL team:

Sunrisers Hyderabad

Amit Mishra, Aaron Finch, Darren Sammy, Irfan Pathan, Jason Holder, Y Venugopal Rao, Bernard Taylor, Prashant Parmeshwaran, Aniruddh Srikkanth, Manprit Juneja

Mumbai Indians

Zaheer Khan, Pragyan Ojha, Jalaj Saxena, CM Gautham, Sushant Marathe, Apurv Wankhede, Krishmar Santokie, Ben Dunk

Chennai Super Kings

Ben Hilfenhaus, John Hastings, Vijay Shankar, David Hussey

Delhi Daredevils
Kevin Pietersen, Murali Vijay, Dinesh Karthik, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Ross Taylor, Jaydev Unadkat, Rahul Sharma, Jimmy Neesham, Siddharth Kaul, Wayne Parnell, Rahul Shukla, HS Sharath, Milind Kumar, Imran Tahir

Kings XI Punjab

Cheteshwar Pujara, L Balaji, Murali Kartik (retired)

Kolkata Knight Riders
Jacques Kallis (retired), R Vinay Kumar, Manvinder Bisla, Debabrata Das, Sayan Sekhar Mondal

Rajasthan Royals

Brad Hodge, Unmukt Chand, Iqbal Abdulla, Kevon Cooper, Ankit Sharma, Amit Sharma, Ankush Bains

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Yuvraj Singh, Albie Morkel, Parthiv Patel, Muttiah Muralitharan, Ravi Rampaul, Sachin Rana, Shadab Jakati, Tanmay Mishra