New Delhi, Dec 7 (PTI) : Top stars Saina Nehwal and Lee Chong Wei were the costliest buys, fetching a whopping USD 100,000, while Indian shuttlers P V Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth were bought for USD 95,000 and USD 80,000 respectively at the rechristened Premier badminton League (PBL) players’ auction here today.
World No. 2 Saina and former World No. 1 Lee Chong Wei were bought by Awadh Warriors of Lucknow and Hyderabad Hunters respectively for approx Rs 66,70,745 each in a closed door bidding yesterday even though their names were mentioned in the players list which went under the hammer in the open session today.
Two-time bronze medallist at the World Championship and winner of Macau Open, Sindhu found herself in the middle of an aggressive bidding today among Delhi Acers, Mumbai Rockets and Chennai Smashers and she was finally bought by Vijakant son Shanmugapandian owned Chennai Smashers for approx Rs 63,37,207.
World No. 9 Srikanth, who won the Swiss Open and India Super Series this season, attracted fierce bids from Bangalore Top Guns and Mumbai Rockets before being bought by the former for approx Rs 53,40,756.
Indonesian player Tommy Sugiarto, who had beaten Srikanth at the finals of Indonesia Masters Grand Prix Gold last week, was picked by Delhi Acers for USD 74,000 (approx Rs 49,36,351).
Among other Indians, Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap, who is recovering from an injury, went to Hyderabad for a lowly USD 35,000 (approx Rs 23,347,60), same as Ajay Jayaram, who went to Delhi Acers.
Men’s doubles player B Sumeeth Reddy and Manu Attri went for their base price of USD 25,000 (approx Rs 16,67,686) to Bengaluru Top Guns and Mumbai Rockets respectively.
2010 Commonwealth Games champion Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa, who found themselves in the middle of a controversy after their base price was reduced before the 2013 IBL Players’ auction, went for USD 30,000 to their homes cities — Hyderabad and Bengaluru respectively. However, the official twitter handle of PBL mentioned them fetching USD 60,000 each.
Promising Indian shuttler HS Prannoy fetched USD 47,000 (approx Rs 31,35,250) from Mumbai franchise, owned by Devyani Leisures Pvt. Ltd, while Thailand’s Tanongsak Saensomboosuk, who had a base price of USD 15,000, fetched USD 41000 from Awadhe Warriors.
Russia’s Vladimir Ivanov was bought by Mumbai Rockets for USD 42,000 (approx Rs 28,01,712), while England’s Rajiv Ouseph was taken by Delhi Acers for USD 36,000 (approx Rs 24,01,468) during the auction which started after a two hour delay.
Six teams — Hyderabad Hunters, Mumbai Rockets, Delhi Acers, Bengaluru Top Guns, Awadh Warriors, Chennai Smashers – each had a total purse of USD 270,000 (Approx Rs 1,80,11,011).