JOIN USUthappa, Binny top draws
Hard-hitting openers Robin Uthappa and Mayank Agarwal, released by Bellary Tuskers, will be the most sought after ones along with India all-rounder Stuart Binny, wicketkeeper-batsman CM Gautam and medium pacer Abhimanyu Mithun at the Karnataka Premier League Players Auction here at the M Chinnaswamy stadium on Saturday.
Binny and Gautam weren’t part of last year’s auction for different reasons. While Binny was on national duty, Gautam sat out following a surgery to his injured knee. The presence of the duo will add more spice to the auction where the addition of new team -- Namma Shimoga -- is expected to attract competitive bids. Shimoga, with full purse of Rs 2000000 (Rs 12 lakh to buy Pool A players and Rs 8 lakh to buy players from Pool B) to spend to form their team, are expected to go after these star players who are all in the elite Pool A with a base price of Rs 50,000. Emerging stars like Shreyas Gopal, HS Sharath and Shishir Bhavane and proven customers such as Bharat Chipli, Amit Verma and Anirudha Joshi too are likely to be pursued hotly by the teams. All-rounder Joshi, whose base price was Rs 10,000, was in fact the story of the last auction where he was sold for Rs 405000 to Mangalore United. This was third highest bid behind Uthappa (Rs 530000) and Mithun (Rs 500000).
Pool A has 24 players to be auctioned off after 11 from this group were retained by their respective franchises. Pool B will see 227 players go under the hammer after Bellary Tuskers held on to Devraj Patil from this list.
Noted commentator Charu Sharma will be the auctioneer.
New partner
Two-time finalists Belagavi Panthers have got a new co-owner in Atul Srivastava of Gaames Merchandise Pvt Ltd. Srivastava is joining hands with PR Nagesh of Subhas Enterprises as co-owner from season IV of the tournament.