Kabaddi player auction sees ~460 mn spent

The second day of the Pro Kabaddi player auctions on Thursday continued to see heavy bidding from the 12 franchisees as they built their Teams. While none of the bids went as high as on Wednesday, there were some closely fought ones.

The costliest player of the day was Prashant Kumar Rai, acquired by UP Yoddhas for ~7.9 million. The second highest bid was ~6.12 million by Dabang Delhi, for acquiring Chandran Ranjit. Of the 422 players available in the auction, a total of 200 were sold at varying prices.

The 12 franchisees spent close to ~460 million on player acquisition in all, the highest spending coming from Telugu Titans. They acquired 18 players for ~39.85 million. Each team had a salary purse of ~40 million for player acquisition, including the money spent on retaining players. With this, kabaddi players are among the highest bid for among noncricket games.

In fact, Monu Goyat, taken by Haryana Steelers for ~15.1 million, is the highest paid sportsperson in domestic leagues today, excluding cricketers. Footballer Sunil Chhetri is next, with a winning bid of ~15 million placed by Bengaluru FC in the fourth season auction of the Indian Super League.

The Pro Wrestling League and Premier Badminton League have attracted bids as high as ~5.5 million (Sushil Kumar) and ~6.2 million (H S Prannoy), respectively. Mustafa Ghouse, chief executive of Haryana Steelers said: “Auctions can always get a bit tricky but I can say we’ve come very close to matching the plan we had before we went into it. The coach seems happy about the squad we have assembled this season and now it’s down to how we prepare on the mat, building up to the start of the League. While Monu has grabbed the headlines, it’s encouraging to see a fair number of players touch or cross the Rs 1 crore mark. It goes to show how much the sport has grown and caught on. As for our buy, we are happy to secure the services of a seasoned campaigner and we believe he will play more than just a key role in our bid to succeed this season.”

Haryana Steelers made the highest bid of the season, and in the league so far, for Monu Goyat at ~15.1 million. Other big spenders at the two-day auction were Telugu Titans (Rahul Chaudhari for ~12.9 million) and Jaipur Pink Panthers (Deepak Hooda for ~11.5 million).

While the top slots in terms of the costliest buys were taken by Indians, players from abroad also attracted intense bidding. Fazel Atrachali and Abozar Mohajermighani, both from Iran, went for ~10 million and ~7.6 million, respectively.