Franchises shell out big bucks on Day-1 of Pro Kabaddi season-6 auctions

As 12 teams battled it out on the bidding floor, records were broken in rapid succession as five players attract winning bids of above Rs 10 mn

The first day of the Pro Kabaddi season 6 auctions saw some heavy duty bidding by the teams, as records were made and broken within hours. Beating Nitin Tomar’s record as the costliest player (Rs 9.3 million last season) in the league ever, Monu Goyat was picked up by the Haryana Steelers for Rs 15.1 million. The second highest bid was for Rahul Chaudhari who was snapped up by Telugu Titans for Rs 12.9 million.

The day started with Iran’s Fazel Atrachali attracting a massive bid of Rs 10 million by U Mumba. He became the first every player in the league to touch the Rs 10 million mark in the auction and was at the time of the bid, the costliest player ever. However, less than four hours later, the record was broken yet again as Jaipur Pink Panthers picked Deepak Hooda for Rs 11.5 million. Hooda shares the top spot with Tomar who beat his own record of Rs 9.3 million when he was picked up by Puneri Paltan for Rs 11.5 million, minutes after Hooda set the record. Rishank Devadiga was also among the sought after players, going for Rs 11.1 million to the UP Yodhas.

Among the overseas players, it was the Iranians who attracted the moolah. While Fazel Atrachali went to U Mumbai for Rs 10 million, the Telugu Titans picked up his fellow countryman Abozar Mighani for Rs 760,000

A total 422 players will are expected to go under the hammer this auction which spans over two days. Of these 58 are overseas players and 87 are players from the Future Kabaddi Heroes Programme (FKH), a nationwide talent scouting programme. Each team can have 18-25 players. This includes up to three players from the FKH, and between two and four overseas players. Each team has a salary purse of Rs 40 million.

The league introduced the concept of “Final Bid Match”, whereby the franchises are entitled to match the final bid made by another franchise, for one or at most two players from its Season V squad. This is similar to the Right to match feature in the Indian Premier League player auctions.

The auction is being broadcast on the Star Sports network and Hotstar and has this year introduced a new packaging feature called ‘bid-o-meter’. It is a graphical representation, similar to a speed-o-meter with three distinct ranges (Steal| Fair| Ambitious) for television only. While a bid for a player is active, the needle of the “Bid-o-Meter” will move along the range according to the current bid price till it settles on the final bid, this is done through a backend algorithm.

Sr. No	Player	Country of origin	Winning Bid (Rs mn)	Bidding Team
1	Monu Goyat	India	15.1	Haryana Steelers
2	Rahul Chaudhari	India	12.9	Telugu Titans
3	Nitin Tomar	India	11.5	Puneri Paltan
4	Deepak Hooda	India	11.5	Jaipur Pink Panthers
5	Rishank Devadiga	India	11.1	UP Yodhas
6	Fazel Atrachali	Iran	10.0	U Mumba
7	Abozar Mighani	Iran	76	Telugu Titans