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The third season of the Premier Badminton League is upon us and the auctions have already taken place. Each franchise spent a minimum of Rs. 2.12 crores and bought a team of ten players each with at least three of them being women.
H.S. Prannoy is the highest earner among the list of established players and was bought for a massive Rs. 62 Lakhs by Ahmedabad Smash Masters while Victor Axelsen and Sung Ji-Hyun went for Rs. 50 Lakhs each to the Bengaluru Blasters and Delhi Acers respectively.
Despite all the big money buys, there were some players who went for a considerably lower amount and are looking like unbelievably top-notch buys on paper. Let's take a closer look at them:
#5 Chris Addock
Chris Addock who played for Chennai Smashers in the last edition of the Badminton Premier League was retained by the franchised for Rs. 54 Lakhs for the upcoming season. The defending champions Chennai has always laid more importance on making singles matches their backbone and won the last edition because of big performances in the same.
Addock can play in both men's doubles and mixed doubles and a player of his ability for Rs. 54 Lakhs is an outright bargain on any given day. He will be playing alongside his wife Gabrielle Addock in the mixed doubles matches and they have a good history of winning tournaments like European Badminton Championships, Hong Kong Open, Swiss Open and many other tournaments in the past.
Addock has won the Finnish Open and also managed to win a silver medal thrice at the Bitburger Open.
#4 Saina Nehwal
Saina Nehwal was retained by her franchise for 41.25 Lakhs this term, thus getting a hike of 25% from her price of 33 Lakhs from the last season. The former World No.1 has many titles and accolades to her name and it will be an understatement to say that she deserved to win them.
Saina is the only Indian female and only the second Indian to achieve the World No.1 rank. On her way to world dominance, she won more than 20 international titles including ten Superseries titles and also a bronze medal at the 2010 Common Wealth Games held in Delhi.
In 2012, she became the first Indian badminton player to win a medal at the London Olympics. She has been awarded with the Rajiv Khel Ratna Award, Arjuna Award and the Padma Bhushan by the Indian government for her achievements in the sport. Getting a world star for 41.25 Lakhs is a bargain indeed, to say the least.
#3 Ashwini Ponnappa
Ashwini Ponnappa was bought by Delhi Acers for Rs. 20 Lakhs in this year's auction. In the last edition, she represented the Bengaluru Blasters and forged a good partnership with Jwala Gutta as they were the runners-up in the 2010 India Open.
Both of them entered the history books when they became the first Indians to win a bronze medal at the World Badminton Championships. The duo won many tournaments together including the 2015 Canada Open.
After her split with Gutta in 2016, she qualified for the final of the Syed Modi International tournament in both women's and mixed doubles categories but lost out in the final of both formats. Ponnapa will be a useful player in the mixed doubles for Delhi this year and Rs. 20 Lakhs is easily a bargain for her.
#2 Parupalli Kashyap
Parupalli Kashyap was bought by Awadhe Warriors for 20 Lakhs. In the last edition of the tournament Kashyap represented the Chennai Smashers. In 2010, Kashyap won the bronze medal in men's singles in Common Wealth Games held in Delhi in 2010. He also reached the quarter-finals of the men's singles in Olympics 2012, becoming the only Indian to achieve that feat at that time.
Kashyap went on to win a gold at the Glasgow CWG in 2014 and he was awarded with the 'Icon Player' award in the Indian Badminton League. In 2012, he was awarded the Arjuna Award by the Indian government. He has won the Syed Modi International tournament in both 2012 and 2015. Given his achievements, Awadhe would be really happy to acquire his services for just Rs. 20 Lakhs.
#1 Satwiksairaj Rankireddy
Satwiksairaj was retained by his franchise Hyderabad Hunters and will now get 3.75 Lakhs, a 25% rise from the 3 Lakhs he received in the 2017 season of BPL. The 17-year old grabbed headlines in 2016 when he along with his doubles teammate Chirag Shetty won tournaments in Bangladesh, India and Mauritius.
This year, the duo won the Vietnam Open International challenge beating former World champion Markis Kido and his teammate Hendra Gunawan on the way to the title. India has seen many mixed and women's doubles winning titles in the past but Satvik and Chirag are trying to form a legacy of their own in the nascent stages of their career. A lot will be expected from Satvik in this season and the expectations are well justified.
