It was a red-letter day in the world of Kabaddi, as the PKL Season 11 player auction saw a few records smashed under the gavel.
While Sachin (Rs 2.15 crore) for the Tamil Thalaivas and Mohammadreza Shadloui Chiyaneh (Rs 2.07cr) for the Haryana Steelers bagged the biggest deals on the first day of the player auction, six more players were handed a deal in excess of Rs 1cr. By the end of the night, a total of 20 players went under the hammer and a record eight finished as “crorepatis”.
The 12 franchises at the auction together spent a total of Rs 17.782cr on the opening day. Among the biggest highlights of the day was the high-octane bidding wars for the seasoned pros.
PKL stars break record
Ajinkya Pawar, Bharat, Guman Singh, Maninder Singh, Mohammadreza Shadloui Chiyaneh (defender of the year in season 10), Pawan Sehrawat, Sachin and Sunil Kumar were part of the 1-crore club in Thursday’s player auction. Sunil Kumar, who went to U Mumba for Rs 1.015cr, became the most expensive Indian defender in the history of the competition, which is set to begin its 11th season.
The player with the most raid points in the history of PKL – Pardeep Narwal was acquired by Bengaluru Bulls for Rs 70 lakh, and the veteran defender Surjeet Singh was snapped up by the Jaipur Pink Panthers for Rs 60 lakh.
Chiyaneh breaks a ceiling
The Iranian kabaddi superstar Mohammadreza Shadloui Chiyaneh crossed the 2-crore mark once again after he was acquired by Haryana Steelers for Rs 2.07cr. Interestingly, he is also the first international player to get more than Rs 2cr in consecutive years. Meanwhile, PKL legend Fazel Atrachali, who has been part of the PKL since season 2, was signed on by the Bengal Warriorz for Rs 50 lakh.
Speaking on behalf of Mashal Sports, Anupam Goswami, league commissioner, Pro Kabaddi League, said: “It was absolutely riveting to watch multiple records being broken in the PKL season 11 player auction. We are filled with pride to see 8 players cross the 1-crore mark today and Sunil become the most expensive Indian defender ever. The exciting buys will continue on day 2 and we are eagerly waiting for the action to unfold.”
After the eventful evening, Divyanshu Singh, CEO, Haryana Steelers touched upon their marquee bid on Mohammadreza Shadloui Chiyaneh, saying, “We’ve got the best all-rounder in the league and that really makes our team very strong. The coach always says that Kabaddi is won through a strong defense, and we are happy that we’ve been able to get one of the best all-rounders in the league and feels great. He was (in our plans) and the fact that he was the first pick, we were very sure of the limit that we wanted to go for it, and we managed to get him.”
