Chris Gayle retained by Royal Challengers Bangalore

So with the first window of transfers for IPL 2012 season closing on 20th January, 2012, the big question in everyone's mind was where will Chris Gayle go? Will he be retained by the Royal Challengers Bangalore or will he go into the open auctions?

 

Chris Gayle retained by Royal Challengers Bangalore for IPL 2012 and the next season too

No prize for guessing where he goes.... with an impact player like Chris Gayle in hand, no IPL team would let him loose even if they've to shell out a huge sum of money. And, as expected Royal Challengers Bangalore retain Chris Gayle for an undisclosed amount. This amount though would be disclosed before the IPL Auctions begin this year and the amount would be deducted for the Bangalore IPL Team from the 2 million cap for each team.

"We are delighted to make Chris Gayle a permanent member of our IPL squad. We are confident that with players like him in our side, we will take the extra step this season, and win our maiden IPL title," Sidhartha Mallya, Director of Royal Challengers Sports Pvt Ltd, said in a press release. 

"To me, Bangalore has been a home away from home. I wanted to continue playing for them, and it turned out that they were keen to retain my services," Chris Gayle said.  

Pragyan Ojha is the other person to be transferred for this season of IPL. The India left-arm spinner Ojha has been transferred from Deccan Chargers to Mumbai Indians for an undisclosed fee for the fifth season of the IPL.

 

Indian left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha transferred to Mumbai Indians for IPL 2012

In other IPL news, Sourav Ganguly and Allan Donald have been added to the Pune Warriors coaching staff ahead of the IPL 2012 season. South African fast bowler Donald will be the team's bowling coach and left-handed Ganguly will play a dual role as player and mentor. The Pune team would be without the services of a head coach as Geoff Marsh took the coaching role for Sri Lanka. You can recall that Pravin Amre was their batting coach for their first season in IPL which turned out to be a disasterous one. 

Now, the action shifts to the IPL Auctions to be conducted on February 4th 2012...  With a lot of good players in the auction list, it'll be interesting to see who the big buys will be in this IPL auction for the 2012 season....