The services of London Olympics India team captain Bharat Chetri was acquired for $19,000 on a written request by Jaypee Punjab Warriors, after the auction on Sunday, for the Hockey India League to be played from January 16.
While newcomers into the Indian team, that reached the semifinals of the Champions Trophy in Melbourne recently, were able to command good price, Bharat Chetri was not chosen by any of the five teams initially.
Manpreet Singh topped that list with $61,000, while Dharamvir Singh went for $52,000. Gurmail Singh ($33,000), Nitin Thimmaiah ($25,500), P.C. Thimmanna ($25,000), Akashdeep Singh ($17,000) and Pradhan Somanna ($14,000) were the other notable youngsters winning the confidence of the team-makers.
Though he was taken for the base price of $27,800 by default by Mumbai Magicians, penalty corner specialist Sandeep Singh, as a marquee player, was given 15% more than the best paid player in the team, to reach a figure of $64,400.
Of course, by the same equation, two of the finest players, Teun De Nooijer ($87,400) of the Netherlands and Moritz Fuertse ($83,950) of Germany emerged at the top of the heap, ahead of Sardar Singh ($78,000).
Uttar Pradesh Wizards spent $646,200 in getting close to the cap of $650,000. Jaypee Punjab Warriors ($639,600), Ranchi Rhinos (623,050), Delhi Waveriders ($601,900) and Mumbai Magicians ($589,700) followed.
The teams:Delhi Waveriders:Marquee player: Sardar Singh; Yuvraj Walmiki, Oskar Deecke (Ger), Gurvinder Chandi, Lloyd Norris Jones (RSA), Matt Ghodes (Aus), Danish Mujtaba, Akashdeep Singh, Mohammad Rizwan Sr. (Pak), Simon Child (NZ), Talwinder Singh, Imran Khan, Gurbaj Singh, Bipin Kerketta, Mohammad Rizwan Jr. (Pak), Andrea Mir Bel (Esp), Rupinder Pal Singh, Rahul Silpkar, Surender Kumar, Taeke Taekema (Ned), Hans Raj, Vikramjit Singh, Nicolas Jacobi (Ger), Primin Blaak (Ned).
Mumbai Magicians:Marquee player: Sandeep Singh; Faisal Saari (Mas), Chinglensana Singh, Sarvanjit Singh, Anup Valmiki, Satbir Singh, Glenn Turner (Aus), Sanjay Kumar Bir; Mahmood Rashid (Pak), M.B. Aiyappa, Fareed Ahmad (Pak), Mohammad Tousiq (Pak), Matthew Butturini (Aus), Suresh Toppo, Jonny Jasrotia; Joel Caroll (Aus), Mathew Swann (Aus), Chandan Singh, Gagandeep Singh, Sergi Enrique, Sampath Maylaram; Imran Butt (Pak), Thirumala Rao, P.R. Sreejesh.
Jaypee Punjab Warriors:Marquee player: Jamie Dwyer (Aus); S.V. Sunil, Shivendra Singh, Kieron Govers (Aus), Roger Padros (Esp), Malak Singh, Sukhdev Singh, Ranjeet Singh, Gaganpreet Singh, Jarmanpreet Singh, Dharamvir Singh; Simon Orchard (Aus), Gurmail Singh, Nilakanta Sharma, Gurinder Singh, Rob Hammond (Aus), Lucas Rey (Arg); Ignace Tirkey, Mark Knowles (Aus), Kashif Shah (Pak), Christopher Ciriello (Aus), Jaap Stockmann (Ned), Keshav Dutt, Bharat Chetri.
Ranchi Rhinos:Marquee player: Moritz Fuertse (Ger); Mandeep Singh, Stanli Minz, Floris Evers (Ned), Prabhdeep Singh, Shifaq Rasool (Pak), Nick Wilson (NZ), Amon Marsh Tirkey, Vikas Choudhary, Kothajit Singh, Birendra Lakra, Arvind Kujur, Austin Smith, Manpret Singh, Parvinder Singh, Ashley Jackson (Eng), Amit Rohidas, Justin Reid Ross (RSA), Sukhmanjit Singh, Mohd. Irfan (Pak), Fergus Kavanagh (Aus), Sumit Topno; Fransisco Cortes (Esp), Sushant Tirkey.
Uttar Pradesh Wizards:Marquee player: Teun De Nooijer (Ned); Tushar Khandker, S.K. Uthappa, Pradhan Somanna, Nitin Thimmaiah, M. Gunasekar, P.L. Thimmanna, Jeroen Hertzberger (Ned), Siddharth Shanker, Pardeep Mor, Sander Baart (Ned), Eddie Ockenden (Aus), David Alegre (Esp), Rockey Lohchab, Vivek Dhar, Harjeet Singh; Harbir Singh, V.R. Raghunath, Luke Doerner (Aus), Marcel Balkestein (Ned), Jollie Wouter (Ned), Sreenivas Rao Katharu, Kumar Subramanian (Mas), George Bazeley (Aus).
