Pro Kabaddi Season 5: Franchises spend an unprecedented Rs 47 crore in auction

New Delhi: The Pro Kabaddi player auction netted a consolidated price of Rs 46.99 crore for 227 players selected over two days of intense bidding between 12 franchises. Star raiders Nitin Tomar, Rohit Kumar and all-rounder Manjeet Chillar were the top buys in the auction, picked by Team UP, Bengaluru Bulls and Jaipur Pink Panthers, respectively. Jang Kun Lee, retained by Bengal Warriors, is the highest valued international player, at Rs 80.3 lakhs. [caption id=“attachment_1722917” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AFP[/caption] Overall, Nitin attracted the highest bid at this year’s auction by Team UP for Rs 93 lakhs against his base price of Rs 20 lakhs. This is a whopping increase of 626 per cent compared to the bid price of Rs 12.80 lakhs for Rakesh Kumar, the costliest player in the opening season auctions. While Day 1 was dominated by Category-A stars, Day 2 saw the franchises finding the perfect balance between experienced and young players, to craft winning teams. On Day 2 of the auction, Indian players from Category B, C and D, went under the hammer. Suraj Desai secured the highest bid on Day 2 by Dabang Delhi KC for an amount of Rs 52.50 lakhs. New entrants also attracted interest of the franchisees on the second day of the auction. Sachin, a junior national championships bronze medallist, was picked by Team Gujarat for an impressive amount of Rs 36 lakhs. Anupam Goswami, league commissioner, Pro Kabaddi said, “With 4 new teams coming on board, we embarked upon a new journey with the biggest Kabaddi auction in history. Nitin Tomar going for an unprecedented Rs 93 lakhs is a testament to this enormous scale. This year, the stakes are higher than ever before.” Nitin Tomar, highest bid player of the league, from Team UP, said, “It’s a dream come true. All my family members are happy. I am grateful to Team UP for investing in me. This is quite exciting and motivating, and it shows my team’s belief in me.” Earlier, Iran’s Abozar Mohajermighani was bought by new franchise Gujarat for Rs 50 lakhs. Besides Abozar, other foreign players who attracted good bids are Iran’s Abolfazel Maghsodlo (Delhi, Rs 31.8 lakhs), Iran’s Farhad Rahimi Milaghardhan (Telugu Titans, Rs 29 lakhs), Thailand’s Khomsan Thongkham (Haryana, Rs 20.4 lakhs) and Iran’s Hadi Oshtorak (U Mumba, Rs 18.6 lakhs).