The real devils of the DAREDEVILS

Delhi Daredevils became the only IPL franchise to not retain any player ahead of the 2014 auction. That means they will have the maximum right-to-match cards among all the franchises at the auction: three. They will also have their full purse of Rs 600 million (approx US$9.6) to spend.

It is understood that the franchise was in talks withVirender Sehwag, Kevin Pietersen and David Warnertill Thursday night, but the negotiations fell through. Though franchise officials remained tight-lipped about what went wrong, it can be understood that the owners were not willing to meet the price the players wanted.

In 2011, they had retained Sehwag, who had been the icon player for Daredevils when the IPL launched in 2008. Sehwag, though, has lost his place in the India team, and had a wretched 2013 in domestic cricket.

While England's Pietersen wasn't in top form in the recently-concluded Ashes, going past fifty only twice in 10 innings with a high score of 71, Warner was at his dominating best. He topped the batting charts with 523 runs at 58.11, including two hundreds and two half-centuries.