Nitin Tomar became the highest-bid highest-bid player ever in the brief history of the ProKabaddi League when the 22-year-old raider was picked up for a whopping ₹93 lakh by the new UP franchise at the Season Five auction that saw teams splurge on all-rounders. Nitin had been part of Puneri Paltan in the previous edition.
Earlier in the evening, Manjeet Chhillar had been bought by Jaipur Pink Panthers for a ₹75.50 lakh.
With some of the biggest names through the previous four seasons, both Indian and foreign, being either retained or picked as priority players by four new franchises, it was a matter of using the remaining amount in the most effective way.
Going for all-rounders was perhaps the teams’ way of ensuring value for their money, each team having a maximum purse of ₹4 crore and Chhillar’s price outbid Mohit Chhillar’s ₹53 lakh bid last season. Mohit took a pay cut of ₹6.5 lakh this year, going to newcomer Haryana for ₹43.50 lakh.
The experienced 30-year old Manjeet, who captained Bengaluru in the first two seasons and then led Puneri Paltan in the next two, said he was fairly confident of going for a high price and expressed confidence that he would be able to help his team reach the play-offs this time around, saying individual points were less important than the team’s performance.
However, the only player to score over 50 tackle points in two different seasons of the PKL quipped he would be happy not being captain, since it would reduce pressure on him. Asked to name one player he would have liked to have on his team, he said, “I wanted Rakesh (Kumar) in my team.” Former India captain Rakesh went to the Telugu Titans for ₹45 lakh.
A close second was Surjeet Singh, who went for ₹73 lakh to Bengal Warriors who had retained their Korean raider Jang Kun Lee. His price, after adjusting the 10% increment over the highest-bid player for the team, was ₹80.30 lakh, making him the most expensive player of the PKL.
Among the foreign players, only 11 of the 60 in the fray were bid for, most of them being, not surprisingly, Iranians, five of whom were picked up.
Abozar Mohajermighani was the most expensive of overseas players, picked up for ₹50 lakh by Gujarat. Two each were picked up from Korea and Bangladesh while Japan and Thailand had one player each. There were no buyers for the 10 Pakistanis.
The auctions would continue on Tuesday, when Category B and C players along with those who went into the reserve list, would be up for auction.
