Saina Nehwal the most expensive buy at the Premier Badminton League auctions

Saina Nehwal was the costliest player in the auction

The auctions for the second edition of the Premier Badminton League(PBL) were held on Monday and saw some prominent Indian and international players go under the hammer. Saina Nehwal proved to be the most Indian expensive buy at the auctions, going for a whopping sum of $100000 to the Awadh Warriors from Lucknow in a last minute pre-auction bidding on Sunday night. Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei was also bought at the same pre-auction bidding by the Hyderabad Hunters.

However, there was much drama as to who would pick the former No.1 and in the end, the Hunters beats the Mumbai Rockets in a lottery to pouch the Malaysian.

Joining him in the Hunters line-up will be 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Parupalli Kashyap, who was bought for a sum of $35000 and they will also be joined by Jwala Gutta, who was bought for $25000.

Two-time World Championships bronze medallist P V Sindhu was bought by the newly-introduced Chennai Smashers.

The Bengaluru Top Guns also got an array of stars with Gutta’s doubles partner Ashwini Ponnappa, who was bought for $25000, one half of India’s Men’s Doubles pair Sumeeth Reddy, who was sold to the same team for $25000.

Sumeeth’s partner Manu Attri was bought by the Mumbai Rockets and he will have the likes of HS Pranooy and Vladimar Ivanov of Russia for compnay. The Delhi Acers also had a good time at the auctions, as they bought the likes of recently crowned Indonesia Open champion Tommy Sugiarto and Rajiv Ouseph of England.

The inaugularl edition of the league was held in July 2013 and good support from several quarters. The second edition is scheduled to take place between the 2nd of January and the 17th of January.