As many as 133 players went under the hammer as the third season of the Premier Badminton League (PBL) kicked-off its proceedings with an auction of the players in Hyderabad on Monday, October 9.
PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, and Kidambi Srikanth did not make it to the auction block, as Nehwal and Sindhu were both retained by their previous year’s franchises, and Srikanth was pulled into the Awadhe Warriors team, by their use of the “Right to Match”.
However, the biggest gainer of the day was HS Prannoy. The 2017 US Open Grand Prix gold champion and semi-finalist of the Indonesia Open Super Series and the Japan Open Super Series was picked for a massive Rs 62 lakh for Ahmedabad Smash Masters.
Emerging star Sameer Verma (Mumbai Rockets; Rs 52 lakh) and Ajay Jayaram (North East Warriors Rs 45 lakh) were also much in demand as the eight teams build their rosters to fight for the Rs 6 crore prize money on offer.
Each retained player gets a 25 percent hike in their salary from last year, while players who are bought by using the “Right To Match” only get a 10 percent increase from last year's selling price.
So, defending champions Chennai Smashers retained Olympic silver medallist and silver medallist from the 2017 World Championships PV Sindhu for Rs 48.75 lakh. Nehwal, who had returned with a bronze medal from Glasgow, was retained by Awadhe Warriors for Rs 41.25 lakh. Srikanth, who clinched back-to-back titles at Indonesia and Australia, will also play for his old team Awadhe Warriors after they used the 'Right To Match' card. He will now make Rs 56.10 lakh.
Among others, doubles players, India's Satwik Sairaj, Korea's Lee Young Dae, and Russia's Vladimir Ivanov were all retained by their old teams and were not be part of the auction.
According to the rules, old teams can retain one player and the franchise can use one “right to match”, while new teams can use one right to match for players who are making their debut in the PBL.
There will be 11 players in each franchise with a maximum of five foreign players and minimum of three women players, and each team needs to spend minimum Rs 2.12 crore.
The players auction started after more than two hours delay, and the first player to go under the hammer was the women's world no 1 Tai Tzu Ying, one of the nine icon players, who was bought by Ahmedabad Smash Masters for Rs 52 lakh.
Rio Olympics gold medallist Carolina Marin from Spain was bought by Hyderabad Hunters, the team she played last season, for a base price of Rs 50 lakh.
Newly-crowned world champion and world no 1, Denmark's Viktor Axelsen, was bought by his old team, Bengaluru Blasters, for Rs 50 lakh, while world number 2 Son Wan Ho and World number 5 Sung Ji Hyun went to Delhi Acers for Rs 50 lakh each.
China's Tzu Wei Wang, who is ranked 10th in the world in men's singles, will be the icon player for North Eastern Warriors after he was bought by them for Rs 52 lakh.
Olympic silver medallist in doubles, Christinna Pedersen, became the most expensive doubles player after she was picked up by Awadhe Warriors for Rs 42 lakh.
Pedersen's partner Kamilla Rytter Juhl went to Ahmedabad Smash Masters for Rs 35 lakh.
Doubles specialists Prajakta Sawant and Chirag Shetty were bought by North Eastern Warriors for Rs 7 lakh and Rs 5 lakh respectively; India's top doubles shuttler Ashwini Ponnappa went to Delhi Acers for Rs 20 lakh, while Manu Attri was picked by Bengaluru Blasters for Rs 17 lakh.
India's top mixed doubles player, Pranaav Jerry Chopra, was taken by Delhi Acers for Rs 18 lakh, while young doubles player Arathi Sara Sunil will make her PBL debut for Delhi Acers, who bought her for Rs 3 lakh.
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