Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu was picked up by Hyderabad Hunters for Rs 80 lakh on Monday, 8 October while Saina Nehwal was bought by North Eastern Warriors for the same price at the players' auction for the fourth edition of the Vodafone Premier Badminton League in New Delhi.
The auction saw eight out of nine icon players go for a price of Rs 80 lakh since rules dictated that a team could spend a maximum of Rs 80 lakh on one player. And in case of a deadlock, the player was going to be assigned to a team through a draw of lots.
Meanwhile, reigning Olympic champion Carolina Marin was snapped by debutant PBL franchise Pune 7 Aces for Rs 80 lakh. World Number 9 Sung Ji Hyun was taken up by Chennai Smashers for the same amount.
Saina, who had represented the Awadhe Warriors for the past three editions, went unsold at the start of the day.
Meanwhile, India’s double star Ashwini Ponnappa will turn out for Awadhe Warriors after they pipped Chennai and the Pune outfits, who were involved in a bidding war. Ponnappa was picked up for Rs 32 Lakh.
Kidambi, Axelsen, Prannoy Get Top Bids Among Men
Among the big names in men's badminton, former World No.1 Victor Axelsen of Denmark was picked up by Ahmedabad Smash Masters for Rs 80 lakh, while World No.6 Kidambi Srikanth joined Bengaluru Raptor for the same amount.
HS Prannoy was bought by Delhi Dashers after a bidding war with Mumbai Rockets for Rs 80 lakh, while South Korea's Sung Ji Hyun and Lee Yong Dae also went for the same amount to Chennai Smashers and Mumbai, respectively.
The Awadh Warriors spent Rs 70 lakh to bag the services of South Korean Son Wan Ho while Pune bought Denmark's Mathias Boe for Rs 50 lakh.
World championship silver and bronze medallist Chris Adcock attracted a heavy bidding war but has been ultimately picked up by Chennai for Rs 54 lakh.
Teenaged sensation Lakshya Sen was bought by Pune for Rs 11 lakh while another youngster Satwiksairaj Rankireddy went for a whopping Rs 52 lakh to the Ahmedabad Smash Masters.
This year the league expands to nine teams with the addition of Pune Franchise. A total of 145 players listed from 23 countries went under the hammer.
This was the first time since 2015 that all players returned to the auction pool with no Right To Match (RTM) cards for any teams.
The competition, which will be held from 22 December to 13 January, will witness nine teams slug it out for a prize purse of Rs 6 crore in five cities with the inaugural rounds being held in Mumbai. Pune, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Bengaluru will be the other host cities.
(With inputs from IANS)
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