Verma, Gowtham sizzle at Karbonn Smartphones Karnataka Premier League 2017 player auction

Bengaluru, 6 August 2017: A day of intense bidding, quick mathematics and a variety of permutations and combinations during the Karbonn Smartphones Karnataka Premier League player auction on Sunday (August 6), at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium ended with the seven squads of the upcoming tournament taking concrete shape. A total of over Rs 2.06 crores was spent on 126 players in an event that was broadcast live on television, with #NammaKPL as a trending topic on Twitter.

The Pool A players, naturally, sizzled most at the auction tables, with both K Gowtham and Amit Verma going for a massive Rs 7.2 lakh each. Ballari Tuskers saw off competition from both Bengaluru Blasters and Mysuru Warriors to win the signature of Verma, while the battle for Gowtham involved as many as five of the seven teams. Hubli Tigers and Bengaluru opened the bidding, before Mysuru, Ballari and Belagavi Panthers all entered the race. However, it was Belagavi who held firm in the face of some exceedingly intense bidding to secure the signature of Gowtham.

The bidding war naturally thrilled Amit Verma. “I never expected to go for this amount. But I'm very happy that I'm back in Ballari, because I actually wanted to be back with the same guys. We've got some real good players. Aravind Reddy actually had told me he wanted me back in the team. But even then, I didn't expect to go for this much. But I'm glad and am looking forward to the tournament,” said Verma.

Team Belagavi Panthers

Mayank Agarwal also breached the Rs 7-lakh mark in what was another bidding war that involved almost all the participant teams. Ballari opened the bidding but was soon challenged by Bijapur. The price rocketed up soon, but that didn’t deter the teams. Mysuru and Hubli joined in the battle as well, and after the Rs 6-lakh mark was breached, Bengaluru threw their hat in the ring. Eventually, Bengaluru and Hubli were the only teams in contention for Agarwal. Bengaluru pulled out after the Rs 7-lakh mark was touched, giving Hubli their prized player.

There were others in Pool A who went for big money. R Samarth was picked up for as much as Rs 5.9 lakh by Bengaluru, who saw off both Ballari and Bijapur for his signature. Anirudha Joshi was the subject of a fierce battle between Mysuru and Namma Shivamogga, the latter eventually picking him up for Rs 5.8 lakh. Prateek Jain was another player who excited the tables, with all of Ballari, Bijapur and Mysuru vying for him. Ballari, who kept the paddle raised throughout, ended up winning that battle, claiming Prateek for Rs 5.5 lakh.

Ballari was the first among all the teams to reach their quota of five Pool A players, having signed up KL Rahul, KB Pawan, CM Gautam, Verma and Jain for a total of Rs 16.7 lakh.

The Pool B auction, held in the afternoon, had more than its share of exciting bidding as well. That was no more evident than in the tussle for the batsman R Jonathan, who became the costliest Pool B player from the 2017 player auction. From the moment his name was drawn from the lot, there was a prolonged tug-of-war between Shivamogga and Bijapur. The price shot up and kept going up till eventually, at Rs 5.10 lakh, Bijapur decided to pull out. Shivamogga emerged with an exciting talent.

The interest in him pleasantly surprised R Jonathan too. “I was home when I heard the news. I am very glad that the team noticed my talent and are supporting my talent. So many teams wanted me, and that's obviously nice to see. It gives me more confidence to do well in the coming Karbonn Smartphones KPL. I had just returned from practice, when one of my friends called me and said I'd been picked by Namma Shivamogga. My phone hasn't stopped ringing since then, my family and friends have kept calling me and congratulating me,” said Jonathan.

Stalin Hoover’s was a similarly impressive bidding battle, Belagavi securing his services for Rs 4.5 lakh after seeing off competition from Ballari. Dikshanshu Negi’s was a similar story as all of Bijapur, Ballari and Hubli tussled for his services. His price screamed past the Rs 4 lakh-barrier, before Bijapur sealed his name on their roster for Rs 4.4 lakh. Naveen MG, the all-rounder, was also the subject of interest from Bijapur and Ballari, till he was eventually secured by the former for Rs 4.2 lakh.

After the main round of auction, the unsold Pool A players were called back, meaning Kunal Kapoor was back up for grabs. Ballari pounced on the opportunity to pick him up for Rs 2.9 lakh.

Team Bengaluru Blasters

Charu Sharma, the reputed sports presenter, expertly auctioneered the event, ensuring the bids kept flowing in thick and fast and followed a strict schedule, all the while maintaining an air of joviality.

Sanjay Desai, KSCA president, said: “It was a very exciting player auction. All the teams tried their best, and they all have very well-balanced, strong units now. We can now look forward to a hard-fought, competitive sixth edition of the Karbonn Smartphones Karnataka Premier League next month.”

R. Sudhakar Rao, KSCA honorary secretary, said: “We couldn’t have hoped for a better auction. The franchisees have utilised their purse very smartly and judiciously. Furthermore, they have ensured that a lot of youngsters will now have opportunities to rub shoulders with some big players in Karnataka cricket.”

The sixth edition of the Karbonn Smartphones Karnataka Premier League, powered by Cycle Pure Agarbathies, is to be held in September. The tournament, played in the memory of S.D.N.R Wadiyar, the former president of the KSCA of the scion of the Mysore royal family, will be held across three venues in Karnataka – Mysuru, Hubballi and Bengaluru.

Teams post the auctions

Ballari Tuskers

Amit Verma (7.2 Lakh), CM Gautam (0.5 Lakh), Pawan KB (3 Lakh), Prateek Jain, (5.5 Lakh), KL Rahul (0.5 Lakh), Sai Shiv Narayan (0.2 Lakh), Anil I G (0.5 Lakh), Devdutt Padikal (0.2 Lakh), Nishant Singh Shekavat (0.2 Lakh), Abhinav Manohar (1.2 Lakh), Bhavesh Gulecha (0.7 Lakh), Zeeshan Ali Sayyed (1 Lakh), Rohan Kadam (2.8 Lakh), Dinesh Borwankar (0.2 Lakh), Zahoor Farooqui (2.2 Lakh), Kunal Kapoor (2.9 Lakh), Daivik Vishwanath (0.2 Lakh), Gautham Sagar (0.2 Lakh)

Total players: 18, Purse spent: Rs 29.2 Lakh

Belagavi Panthers

Arvind S (1.5 Lakh), K Gowtham (7.2 Lakh), Manish Pandey (1.6 Lakh), Mir Kaunain Abbas (2.5 Lakh), Stuart Binny (1.1 Lakh), Satish Bharadwaj (0.2 Lakh), Anand Doddamani (0.65 Lakh), Shubang Hegde (2.7 Lakh), Bharath K N (3.8 Lakh), Shashindra K, (0.2 Lakh), Stalin Hoover (4.5 Lakh), Sharath BR (0.7 Lakh), Sunil Kumar Jain (0.2 Lakh), Avinash D (0.2 Lakh), Nitin Bhille (1.5 Lakh), Akshay C K (0.2 Lakh), Rakshit S (1 Lakh), Darshan Machaiah (0.2 Lakh)

Bijapur Bulls

KC Cariappa (2.5 Lakh), Abhimanyu Mithun (1 Lakh), Mohammed Taha (5 Lakh), Ronit More (1.3 Lakh), Sharath HS (0.5 Lakh), Rishab Singh (0.7 Lakh), Rajat Hedge (0.2 Lakh), Kiran AM (2.4 Lakh), Bharat Chipli (1.2 Lakh), Dikshanshu Negi (4.4 Lakh), Nidish M (1.8 Lakh), Praveen, Naveen MG (4.2 Lakh), Prithviraj Shekawat (3.5 Lakh), Raj Atul Gala (0.2 Lakh), Rishab G M (0.2 Lakh), Prashanth S (0.2 Lakh), Lal Sachin (0.2 Lakh)

Hubli Tigers

Abhishek Reddy (2 Lakh), Mayank Agarwal (7 Lakh), Praveen Dubey (3.1 Lakh), R Vinay Kumar (3.6 Lakh), Abhisek Sakuja (3.4 Lakh), Ritesh Bhatkal (1.3 Lakh), Aman Khan (0.2 Lakh), Nischal D (0.25 Lakh), Prithvi Varadharajan (0.2 Lakh), Siddharthh KV (1.8 Lakh), M Kranti Kumar (1.8 Lakh), Anurag Bajpai (1.8 Lakh), Ishfaq Nasir Bhat (0.2 Lakh), Swapnil Yelave (0.2 Lakh), Sharan Gowda (1.5 Lakh), S Shivaraj (0.25 Lakh), Rohith Gowda (0.2 Lakh)

Kalyani Bengaluru Blasters

Mitrakant Singh Yadav (2.5 Lakh), Pavan Deshpande (4.6 Lakh), Prasidh M Krishna (3 Lakh), R Samarth (5.9 Lakh), Shishir Bhavane (1.5 Lakh), Pranav Bhatia (0.2 Lakh), Sinan Abdul Khader (0.2 Lakh), Jeshwanth Acharya (0.9 Lakh), Manjesh Reddy (0.7 Lakh), Shivam Mishra (0.2 Lakh), Rajoo Bhatkal (3.3 Lakh), Vishwanathan M (0.5 Lakh), Abhisek Bhat (1.3 Lakh), Rohan Raju (0.6 Lakh), Koushik V (2.8 Lakh), Varun Pandit (0.2 Lakh), Nikin Jose (0.2 Lakh), Sharath Srinivas (1 Lakh)

Mysuru Warriors

Karun Nair (4 Lakh), Shreyas Gopal (3.4 Lakh), Suchith J (2.5 Lakh), Suneel Raju (5 Lakh), Vyshak Vijayakumar (2.1 Lakh), Vineet Yadav (0.3 Lakh), Kushal Wadhwani (0.2 Lakh), Shivil Kaushik (0.3 Lakh), Arjun Hoysala (3.2 Lakh), Prateeksh R (0.2 Lakh), Manjunath S P (2.7 Lakh), Bhareth NP (1.2 Lakh), Srijith K L (0.2 Lakh), Avinash K C (0.45 Lakh), Akshay S L (1.7 Lakh), Nikith S (1.9 Lakh), Ram Sarikh Yadav (0.2 Lakh), Vikas Kumar Sinha (0.2 Lakh)

Namma Shivamogga

Abrar Kazi (2.5 Lakh), Akhil B (2.4 Lakh), Anirudha joshi (5.8 Lakh), Pradeep T (4.8 Lakh), Mohd. Sarfaraz Ashraf (1.9 Lakh), Vinoo Prasad (0.2 Lakh), Amey Shanbag (0.2 Lakh), Jonathan R (5.1 Lakh), Liyan Khan (0.2 Lakh), Abdul Majid (0.2 Lakh), Saksham Kaul (0.2 Lakh), Shoaib Manager (1.1 Lakh), Chiranjeevi G S (1.5 Lakh), Sadiq Kirmani (0.2 Lakh), Nihal Ullal (1.1 Lakh), Lavish (0.2 Lakh), Aditya Somanna (1 Lakh), Mashooq Hussain (0.2 Lakh)