As the bidding war escalated past 10 p.m. on Monday, 22-year old Nitin Tomar was wondering whether it was all a dream. The Indian Navy sailor, all of 22 games old in the ProKabaddi League and having been around for just two of the four seasons so far, was among the last few names to come up during Day One of the auctions and was seeing franchises relentlessly vie for him.
When the hammer finally came down on ₹93 lakh, sending him to the as yet unnamed Uttar Pradesh franchise, the raider from Malakpur village in the State’s Baghpat district became the most expensive player ever in the PKL.
“I was sitting with my friends and watching the auction live and while I was unable to believe what had happened, the look on my friends faces was even more shocking and, frankly, funny. Their jaws had dropped and there was complete awe,” Tomar told The Hindu the day after.
He admitted that the phone calls since the final bid had been non-stop and he was still coming to terms with it. “Interviews are ok, I am now used to them in the last two seasons and after winning gold at the World Cup last year. But this was something else. I don’t know who all are calling, random numbers sometimes to ask how I feel and sometimes just to congratulate. It is all a bit unnerving,” Tomar laughed. His friends are demanding a huge party, which he has promised, and his family is proud of the boy who used to play kabaddi more for fun than anything else in school and village.
“Everyone is happy but my dada-dadi (grandparents) are the happiest. They were the first to call me after the auction. No one could believe I would go for so much,” Tomar, who played for Bengal Warriors and Puneri Paltan for a season each, said.
He is planning to use the money for his sister’s wedding and plough it into developing his family’s agricultural land further but insisted that while there was responsibility, there was no pressure of being in the spotlight.
“The fact that the team spent so much on me does make me a lot more responsible. I had expected around ₹45-50 lakhs though my friends kept saying I will cross ₹1 crore, which sounded too much.
“But even if I had not got so much, I would have still given my best. That I have been picked up by my home state franchise only makes it better. On the court only performance matters, money doesn’t play,” he said.
