TOP PICKS
Saina Nehwal Rs 66.71 lakh
Lee Chong Wei Rs 66.71 lakh
P V Sindhu Rs 63.37 lakh
Kidambi Srikanth Rs 53.40 lakh
PTI
NEW DELHI
Top stars Saina Nehwal and Lee Chong Wei were the costliest players at the Premier Badminton League (PBL) auction, fetching a whopping $100,000 (Rs 66.71 lakh approx) each, while Indian shuttlers P V Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth were bought for $95,000 (Rs 63.37 lakh) and $80,000 (Rs 53.40 lakh), respectively, here on Monday.
World No. 2 Saina and former World No. 1 Lee Chong Wei were bought by Awadh Warriors of Lucknow and Hyderabad Hunters respectively for Rs 66,70,745 each in a closed door bidding on Sunday, even though their names were mentioned in the players list which went under the hammer in the open session on Monday.
Two-time bronze medallist at the World Championship and winner of Macau Open, Sindhu found herself in the middle of an aggressive bidding among Delhi Acers, Mumbai Rockets and Chennai Smashers and she was finally bought by Vijayakanth's 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 beat Srikanth in the final of Indonesia Masters Grand Prix Gold last week, was picked by Delhi Acers for $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 $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 $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 $30,000 to their homes cities --Hyderabad and Bengaluru respectively. However, the official twitter handle of PBL mentioned them fetching $60,000 each.
Promising Indian shuttler HS Prannoy fetched $47,000 (approx Rs 31,35,250) from Mumbai franchise, owned by Devyani Leisures Pvt. Ltd, while Thailand's Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk, who had a base price of $15,000, fetched $41000 from Awadhe Warriors. Russia's Vladimir Ivanov was bought by Mumbai Rockets for $42,000 (approx Rs 28,01,712), while England's Rajiv Ouseph was taken by Delhi Acers for $36,000 (approx Rs 24,01,468) during the auction which started after a two hour delay.
The lucrative tournament, now known as PBL, will kick-start on January 2 in Mumbai with an extravagant opening ceremony and the grand finale will take place here on January 17.
