He went for ₹5.6 lakh at the last auction three years ago but this time, international A. Karthik struck it rich at the Prime Volleyball League's player auction here on Tuesday, going for ₹15 lakh, the maximum allowed.
Middle blocker Karthik, picked by Kochi Blue Spikers, was one of the three who were sold for ₹15 lakh, the others being internationals Ashwal Rai (Kolkata Thunderbolts) and Jerome Vineeth (Calicut Heroes).
“I thought I'd get ₹10 lakh maximum, I didn't expect this,” the 32-year-old Karthik, India's captain at the Asian championship in Japan in September, told The Hindu . “Playing for teams in Kerala, which is a hot place for volleyball, is something I wanted very much.”
After the international player draft, where the seven sides picked two foreigners each, the teams were left with ₹45 lakh each. Kochi, also the PVL host city early next year, had spent the most in the platinum category which had the top Indian stars.
“This particular auction is a celebration of the players of India, we are very happy to see 400 of them out here. The last time we had a volleyball player auction, we had some 114 players,” said Joy Bhattacharya, the PVL's CEO.
Players picked by teams (foreigners; and Indians from platinum and gold category only):
Calicut Heroes: Foreigners: Aaron Koubi (France, attacker), David Lee (USA, blocker); Indians: C. Ajithlal (attacker, ₹8.5 lakh), Jerome Vinith (universal, ₹15 lakh).
Kochi Blue Spikers: Colton Cowell (attacker), Cody Caldwell (attacker, both USA); Deepesh Kumar Sinha (blocker, ₹10.75 lakh), A. Karthik (blocker, ₹15 lakh).
Ahmedabad Defenders: Ryan Meehan (USA, blocker), Rodrigo Villalboa (Argentina, attacker); Muthusamy (setter, ₹10 lakh), Hardeep Singh (attacker, ₹4.4 lakh), Shon T. John (attacker, ₹7.25 lakh), L.M. Manoj (middle blocker, ₹7.25 lakh) and P. Prabakaran (Libero, ₹4 lakh).
Hyderabad Black Hawks: Luis Antonio Arias Guzman (Venezuela, universal), Henry Bell (Cuba, attacker); V. Hariharan (setter, ₹5 lakh), Vipul Kumar (setter, ₹4.5 lakh), Rohit Kumar (attacker ₹5.3 lakh) and Amit Gulia (attacker, ₹10 lakh).
Chennai Blitz: Fernando David Gonzalez Rodriguez (Venezuela, attacker), Bruno Da Silva (Brazil, attacker); G.S. Akhin (middle blocker, ₹9.75 lakh), Naveen Raja Jacob (attacker, ₹8 lakh), M. Ukkrapandian (setter, ₹7.75 lakh), G.R. Vaishnav (middle blocker, ₹4 lakh).
Bengaluru Torpedoes: Noah Taitano (USA, universal), Kyle Friend (USA, attacker); Ranjit Singh (setter, ₹4.4 lakh), Pankaj Sharma (attacker, ₹7.5 lakh), Lavmeet Katariya (middle blocker, ₹4.6 lakh), P. Rohith (middle blocker, ₹7.5 lakh), B. Midhun Kumar (libero, ₹5.6 lakh)
Kolkata Thunderbolts: Matthew August (USA, blocker), Ian Satterfield (USA, universal); Vinit Kumar (universal, ₹8.75 lakh), Ashwal Rai (middle blocker, ₹15 lakh) .
