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Cape Town - Star batsman AB de Villiers and all-rounder Chris Morris were the only South Africans retained by their respective Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises for the 2018 edition of the tournament.
De Villiers was retained by Royal Challenges Bangalore for INR 11 crore (approximately R21.3 million), while Morris remains at Delhi Daredevils for INR 7.1 crore (approximately R13.5 million).
According to the IPL website, the eight franchises were eligible to secure up to five players by virtue of a combination of Player Retention (Pre-Player Auction) and Right to Match (RTM) (During the Player Auction).
The player retention is the first step towards the franchises reforming their squads ahead of the 2018 IPL player auction, which will be held on January 27 and 28 in Bengaluru.
The IPL announced that they will let teams splurge up to $12 million each on player salaries in 2018, an increase of 20 percent from last year.
The decision means the eight IPL teams are likely to spend anywhere between $72 million and $96 million on players alone for just eight weeks of cricketing action in 2018.
The 11th edition of the IPL is set to run between April 4-May 31.
IPL players retained for 2018:
Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni (India), Suresh Raina (India), Ravindra Jadeja (India)
Dehli Daredevils: Rishabh Pant (India), Chris Morris (South Africa), Shreyas Iyer (India)
Kings XI Punjab: Axar Patel (India)
Kolkata Knight Riders: Sunil Narine (West Indies), Andre Russell (West Indies)
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (India), Hardik Pandya (India), Jasprit Bumrah (India)
Rajasthan Royals: Steve Smith (Australia)
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (India), AB de Villiers (South Africa), Sarfaraz Khan (India)
Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner (Australia), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (India)
