Retained players and fresh faces will be the focus of attention at the ProKabaddi League season-7 player auction. Patna Pirates, the most successful franchise, showed the way by retaining four Elite players around whom the squad will be formed when fresh talent is recruited.
Telugu Titans also retained four from last year’s squad, from six Elite players permitted.
Defending champion Bengaluru Bulls, U Mumba and Tamil Thalaivas retained three players each.
Match card
Apart from those retained for meeting team management expectations, franchises can also use the Final Bid Match card to bring back an Elite player from their last season’s squad for whom another franchise has bid for at the open auction in Mumbai. For example, Titans released Vishal Bharadwaj, last year’s captain, into the auction. The Hyderabad franchise can match the bid for the all-rounder made by another franchise (say Bengaluru Bulls) using the FBM card and get him back at the revised value.
- Auction facts
- Total purse per franchise raised from ₹4 crore to ₹4.4 crore
- Players limit per franchise (minimum 18, maximum 25), four foreign players and any two of them in the playing squad
- Retained Young Players is the new category
- Costliest player in season-6 auction was Monu Goyat (₹1.51 crore, Haryana Steelers)
Retained Young Players is a new category in force in 2019, permitting franchise to retain a youngster who has completed two seasons with the squad.
PKL’s move is based on the value to the competition due to electrifying performances last season from youngsters Naveen Kumar (for Dabang Delhi), Pawan Kumar (Bulls), Nitesh Kumar (UP Yoddhas) after a difficult debut season getting to grips with the requirements in pro kabaddi. Delhi and Yoddhas will be expected to use the FBM card for Naveen Kumar and Nitesh Kumar respectively.
Fresh talent at the auction will include graduates from the league’s Future Kabaddi Heroes project, among whom six can be chosen by each participating franchise. Gujarat Fortunegiants’ raider Sachin Talwar (best debutant in season five and retained in season six and seven) is a fitting example of how investment in young Indians is paying dividends for team managements.
Four Iranians and a Kenyan figure among the elite pros retained
More foreigners will make news at the two-day auctions, as PKL makes it mandatory for teams to play two foreigners in each team, maximum of four in the squad.
Fazel Atrachali turned heads in season six auction with U Mumba paying ₹1crore for his services in the defence.
The Iranian is retained, it is the turn of fellow Iranians and South Koreans to spark off a bidding war, as team managements grapple with buying players within the purse limit of ₹4.4 crore per franchise allocated.
Retained Elite Players: Bengaluru Bulls: Rohit Kumar, Pawan Kumar Sehrawat, Ashish Kumar; Gujarat Fortunegiants: Sachin Talwar, Sunil Kumar; Bengal Warriors: Baldev Singh, Maninder Singh; Dabang Delhi: Meraj Sheykh, Joginder Narwal; Haryana Steelers: Kuldeep Singh, Vikash Chandola. Jaipur Pink Panthers: Deepak Hooda, Sandeep Kumar Dhoull; Patna Pirates: Pardeep Narwal, Vikas Jaglan, Tushar Patil, Jawahar. Tamil Thalaivas: Ajay Thakur, Manjeet Chillar, Victor Onyango; Telugu Titans: Armaan, Mohsen, Maghsoudloujanfani, Farhad Milaghardan, Nitin Madane; U Mumba: Fazel Atrachali, Rajguru Subramaniam, Arjun Deshwal; UP Yoddha: Amit, Sachin Kumar.