Rahul Chaudhari is one of the big names in the Pro Kabaddi Auction pool.After 29 players were retained by respective Pro Kabaddi franchises, the focus shifts to the auction to bolster their squads further. The auction will be held on April 8-9 in Mumbai as all franchises hope to get an all-round, even squad going into Season VII starting July 19, 2019.
Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the Pro Kabaddi Season VII Auction.
What are the rules around Elite Retained Players?
A total of 29 players have been retained by the franchises going into the Auction. The number of Elite players allowed to be retained has gone up from 21 last year to 29 this year.
The pool of talent retained is a mixture of experienced and youngsters. Tamil Thalaivas have retained Ajay Thakur for the second straight season alongside Manjeet Chhillar. Experienced kabaddi players in Rohit Kumar (Bengaluru Bulls), Fazel Atrachali (U Mumba), Pardeep Narwal (Patna Pirates), Deepak Hooda (Jaipur Pink Panthers), Joginder Narwal (Dabang Delhi) and Maninder Singh (Bengal Warriors) have also been retained.
Among the youngsters, Pawan Sehrawat (Bengaluru Bulls), Vikash Khandola (Haryana Steelers), Sachin (Gujarat Fortunegiants), Sandeep Dhull (Jaipur Pink Panthers) have also been retained by respective franchises.
To help the franchises in ensuring continuity and aiding the youngsters, the League introduced a new category where a franchise can retain New Young Players (NYP) once his 2-year contract is completed under the “Retained Young Players” category. These Retained Young players are over and above the existing cap of 6 New Young players that a franchise can have.
Who are the Elite Retained Players?
Ajay Thakur has been retained by Tamil Thalaivas.Bengal Warriors: Baldev Singh, Maninder Singh
Bengaluru Bulls: Rohit Kumar, Pawan Kumar Sehrawat, Ashish Kumar Sangwan
Dabang Delhi: Meraj Sheykh, Joginder Narwal
Gujarat Fortunegiants: Sachin, Sunil Kumar
Haryana Steelers: Kuldeep Singh, Vikash Khandola
Jaipur Pink Panthers: Deepak Niwas Hooda, Sandeep Kumar Dhull
Patna Pirates: Pardeep Narwal, Vikas Jaglan, Tushar Patil, Jawahar
Puneri Paltan: None
Tamil Thalaivas: Ajay Thakur, Manjeet Chillar, Victor Onyango Obiero
Telugu Titans: Armaan, Mohsen Maghsoudloujafari, Farhad Rahimi Milaghardan
U Mumba: Fazel Atrachali, Rajaguru Subramanian, Arjun Deshwal
UP Yoddha: Amit, Sachin Kumar
What are the rules regarding Pro Kabaddi Auction?
Purse: Each team will have Rs 4.4 crore to spend
Squad size: Teams will have to keep a minimum 18 players in their squad and a maximum of 25.
Final Bid Match: Teams that have already exercised the ‘Elite Retained Players’ option and retained the maximum permitted four elite players will have two ‘Final Bid Matches’ at their disposal. The Final Bid Match option will allow franchises to match the highest bid received for a non-retained player who played for their franchise in the previous season. This is similar to the Right to Match (RTM) option for IPL Auction. Only Patna Pirates and Telugu Titans retained four players from the Elite players.
Foreign players limit: Each team is required to have a minimum of two foreign players and a maximum of four in their roster.
Who are ‘Future Kabaddi Heroes’? The ‘Future Kabaddi Heroes’ campaign aims at identifying the best young kabaddi talents in the country and nurturing them to play in the league. The three year old programme, sees thousands of aspirants which are then culled down to be included in the auction pool. These players enter the auction in the NYP category. Last year, 85 players were part of the auction from the ‘Future Kabaddi Heroes’ campaign. For 2019, a maximum of six players can be selected by teams to bolster their squads.
