Karbonn Smart Karnataka Premier League (KPL) 2015 auction curtain raiser

KPL 2015 is ready to get started

Bangalore, July 24, 2015: With some top names in the pot, the Karbonn Smart Karnataka Premier League (KPL) 2015 Auction to be held on Saturday, July 25 is bound to be an exciting and hard fought affair.

Charu Sharma who will be wielding the auctioneer’s hammer will be a busy man in the first half of the Auction when Pool ‘A’ players come onto the block. Top T20 players like Robin Uthappa, Stuart Binny, C M Gautam, Mayank Agarwal and Abhimanyu Mithun are players who will be high on demand amongst the seven franchisees.

Also on demand will be first timer Shreyas Gopal along with proved performers Shishir Bhavane, Bharat Chipli, Amit Verma, Anirudh Joshi and Sharath H S.

A total of 227 players, inclusive of 24 from Pool A, will come under the hammer. Eleven players from Pool A and Devraj Patil, the lone player from Pool ‘B, have been retained by the six franchisees from last year.

Namma Shimoga, the new team in this the fourth edition of the KPL, will be the envy of the other franchisees as they will have the full purse of Rs 20 lakhs at their disposal (Maximum of 1,200,000 to buy Pool ‘A’ players and Rs 8 Lakhs to bid for Pool B players).

“Since we are new and have the full purse I feel we have an advantage in the auction”, said Namma Shivamogga owner, Umapathi.

“Having coached all the age group teams till U23, I know the players and we have a plan and know the kind of players we need for our team”, said Namma Shivamogga coach G.K Anil Kumar who has played and coached Karnataka junior teams.

It is mandatory for franchisees to buy two players from their catchment area and the event of that not happening, each franchise will be allowed an additional Rs 20,000 (10,000 each) for the two players that they take into their team otherwise.

Each team is required to have a minimum of 15 and a maximum of 20 players inclusive, of the two catchment players in their list.