Dalhor costliest player in ISPL auction; 15-year-old Yasir youngest pick

Ludhiana's Abhishek Kumar Dalhor became the costliest player at Rs 20.50 lakh, while 15-year-old Sharik Yasir from Srinagar became the youngest player in the Indian Street Premier League Season 2 Auction here.

While Dalhor was roped in by last year's finalists Majhi Mumbai, Yasir was snapped up by Srinagar Ke Veer for Rs 3 lakh.

A total of 350 players were in the auction from 55 cities out of which 96 players were bought by the six teams in the league, whose second edition will be held at Thane's Dadoji Kondadev Stadium here from January 26 to February 15 next year.

The six teams spent a total amount of Rs 5.54 crore in forming their 16-member squads each as no player was allowed to be retained ahead of the auction but the franchises had the option of Right-To-Match for the tennis-ball T10 format tournament.

Six players were listed as 'Icon Players' in the auction as among the other big buys were Pune's Vijay Jaysing for Rs 13.75 lakh (Majhi Mumbai), Mumbai's Krishna Satpute for Rs 8.50 lakh (Falcon Risers Hyderabad), Srinagar's Deepak Dogra for Rs 6 lakh (Chennai Singam), Kolkata's Saroj Paramanik for Rs 16.25 lakh (KVN Bangalore Strikers), Indore's Dilip Binjwa for Rs 6 lakh (Srinagar Ke Veer) and Thane's Bhavesh Pawar for Rs 8.50 lakh (Tiigers of Kolkata). 

"Tennis-ball cricket is an exciting format, and ISPL has provided a competitive platform for players to showcase their skills. The inaugural season highlighted some special performances, and this year, the league has expanded to more cities to identify emerging talent," said ISPL core committee member and legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar.

The organisers informed that as many as 30 lakh applications were received for the auction which was pruned to 350 through a stringent process.

"In cricket, whether it is with tennis ball or the season ball, it is about how you handle pressure situations, who plays better under pressure and that is the bottom line," said former India player Pravin Amre, the head of the selection committee at ISPL, explaining the parameters of picking the players for auction.

The organisers also expressed their wish to take the tournament to other cities in the country.

Surat Samat, league commissioner said, "We will be conducting trials in 101 cities in the third season of ISPL."  Most of the team owners wanted to have a certain number of player retentions allowed going forward.

"We would like to have four," said actor and Tiigers of Kolkata co-owner Saif Ali Khan.