The Jaipur franchise bought the Australian duo of Justin Langer and Shane Warne at the IPL players' auction, but yet fell short of the minimum requirement of spending US$3.3 million © Getty Images

The Jaipur franchise has been penalised for falling short of spending the mandatory minimum amount in the IPL players' auction, Cricinfo has learnt.

Jaipur bought only eight players, spending US$2,925,000, a figure well below the required US$3.3 million mark.

"We have asked them to deposit the difference between the minimum of US$3.3 million and the amount they have spent at the auction," IS Bindra, a senior member of the IPL governing council told Cricinfo. "This could also be deducted from the amount that the IPL will pay the teams. But I believe they have a strategy and wanted to save their money for purchases outside the pool."

"Apparently, Jaipur had some confusion over the auction process rules," Charu Sharma, the CEO of Bangalore Royal Challengers, told Cricinfo. "We were told by the IPL management that they have been penalised. They will have to pay the remaining amount to the IPL, who will use the money to reimburse players whose names were withdrawn."

Mohammad Yousuf and Ashwell Prince were the two players who were withdrawn from the auction as they didn't attract any bids. A part of the money paid by the Jaipur side could be used to compensate the duo.

At the other end of the spectrum, five teams - Mohali, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Kolkata - have gone above the maximum limit of US$5 million that was set for the auction. However, the IPL rules state that if a player is expected to be "either completely unavailable or only available for less than four of the matches in 2008, 25% of the player fee bid for that player in the auction will count against the US$5 million purse."

Many players, including all the centrally-contracted Australian cricketers, will fall in this category and the figures spent for the players who are not available will need to be modified accordingly. All the above teams have players who are likely to skip a part or whole of the inaugural season. "For example, the purchase for US$400,000 of a player, who is expected to be completely unavailable in 2008, will cause a deduction of US$100,000 from the franchise's overall $5m purse," the rules state.