Pro Kabaddi League auction will begin on Wednesday. (PKL Photo)
Pro Kabaddi League 2018 season is five months away but the auction for the upcoming season will be held on May 30 and 31 in Mumbai. This will be a two-day affair with names of 422 players going under the hammer. A total of 12 franchises will look to grab the services of these players and they have a total purse of Rs 4 crore.
At the auction on Wednesday, there will be names of 422 players. These are broken into three categories. The first will be the regular players in which there will be a total of 277 players. The second category of players in the overseas players. This year, 58 overseas players have sent their name for the auctions. The remaining 87 players will be from the Future Kabaddi Heroes Programme (FKH), a nationwide talent scouting programme. A team in Pro Kabaddi League can have 18 to 25 players which should also include three players from FKH and two to four international players.
There was also an option to retain the players which gave them the right to retain players through Elite Retained Players program. Out of the 12 franchises, 9 have chosen their Elite Retained Players and the remaining three will construct their teams from scratch.
Another interesting factor in this auction will be the concept of “Final Bid Match”. Through this, the teams will be entitled to match the final bid made by another franchise, for one or at most two players from their season five squad.
A new feature will also be introduced at the broadcast which will be known as ‘bid-o-meter’. It is a graphical representation, similar to a speed-o-meter with three distinct ranges — steal, fail and ambitious. During the auctions, a bid-o-meter needle will be moving constantly and will be stopping according to the bid price.
There will be five categories for the base price of players. According to each category, the players are divided for their base price.
Category A will be Rs 20 Lakh, category B will be Rs 12 Lakh, category C will be Rs 8 Lakh and the fourth category D will be Rs 5 Lakh. There will be a new category as well, known as the New Young Players which will have a fixed salary of Rs 6.6 Lakh.