The Pro Kabaddi League Season 5 saw its auction take place on Monday and Tuesday, with 12 teams, including four new ones, vying for over 350 players. The date for the start of the new season has been announced and it will be July 28, which falls on a Friday.
The new season will be the biggest of its kind in the history of Indian sport. It will feature over 130 matches, spread across 11 states and a time period of 13 weeks. In the auction and out of the blue, it was raider Nitin Tomar, who was the highest pick of the auction, garnering a spectacular Rs 93 lakh bid from the Uttar Pradesh team.
Also read: Pro Kabaddi 2017 Season 5: Full List of players bought by all the teams
Rohit Kumar was the second highest pick at Rs 81 lakh by the Bengaluru Bulls, while Manjeet Chhillar was bought by the Jaipur Pink Panthers for a sum of Rs 75.50 lakh. In the foreign players, Jang-Kun Lee was retained by the Bengal Warriors for an amount nearing 80 lakhs, while the Iranian duo of Abozar Mohajermighani and Abolfazel Maghsodlo enjoyed huge paydays, after being picked up for Rs 50 lakh and 31.80 lakh respectively.
The new teams were allowed one priority pick before the auction. Haryana opted to pick defender Surender Nada, who was part of the Indian team that won the Kabaddi World Cup last year. Gujarat chose Iranian Fazel Atrachali and Tamil Nadu picked Ajay Thakur, while the side from Uttar Pradesh chose not to pick any priority player.
The existing eight teams were allowed to retain one player each from their Season 4 squads, an option availed by all teams except the Jaipur Pink Panthers. The retained players were Deepak Hooda (Puneri Paltan), Pardeep narwal (Patna Pirates), Meraj Sheykh (Dabang Delhi), Ashish Sangwan (Bengaluru Bulls), Jang Kun Lee (Bengal Warriors), Anup Kumar (U Mumba) and Rahul Chaudhari (Telugu Titans).
On the second day of the auction, Indian players from Category B, C and D were up for auction. It was raider Suraj Desai who was chosen for the highest amount as the Dabang Delhi team paid a whopping Rs 52.50 lakh for his services. Jaideep, a highly-rated youngster, was bought by Patna for over half a crore and Sachin was picked by Gujarat for Rs 36 lakhs.
After his pick, Suraj said, “I am very excited, and more importantly, proud to be the top choice in the category. I am thankful to Dabang Delhi for giving me this opportunity. This inspires me to train hard and perform to the fullest in the league.”
