'I always had a special admiration for the north-east and with this alliance I wish to promote badminton in this region, so that we have more people inspired to take up the sport,' said Saina Nehwal, who was first unsold
New Delhi: After being unsold in the first round, India's ace shuttler Saina Nehwal bagged the maximum price of Rs 80 lakh along with PV Sindhu, Carolina Marin, Viktor Axelsen, HS Prannoy, Sung Ji Hyun, Lee Yong Dae and Kidambi Srikanth in the Premier Badminton League (PBL) auction here.
Saina will play for North Eastern Warriors while Sindhu was bought by defending champions Hyderabad Hunters. Marin will be in action for Pune7 Aces, the new addition to PBL this year. Srikanth went to Bengaluru Raptors.
Delhi Dashers signed up HS Prannoy for Rs 80 lakh while Sung Ji Hyun was bought for the same amount by Chennai Smashers. Lee Yong Dae too got Rs 80 lakh from Mumbai Rockets.
Overall, 90 players were bought at the auction. Each franchise had a total purse of Rs 2.6 crore. A team could spend a maximum of Rs 80 lakh on one player.
The reigning queen of Indian Badminton comes home pic.twitter.com/qssObTEiKP
— HyderabadHunters (@Hyd_Hunters)PBL, in its fourth season, will start on December 22 in Mumbai and conclude on January 13, 2019, in Bengaluru. In all, nine teams are in the fray.
"I always had a special admiration for the north-east and with this alliance I wish to promote badminton in this region, so that we have more people inspired to take up the sport," said Saina, who was first unsold.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy was the most expensive non-icon Indian player as he was bought by Ahmedabad Smash Masters for Rs 52 lakh. His base price was Rs 15 lakh.
Reigning CWG women's singles champion, joins for a price of ₹80 lakhs! pic.twitter.com/VG3ryNaBvx
— PBL India (@PBLIndiaLive)Indonesian Tommy Sugiarto was the non-icon foreign player to attract maximum bid, of Rs 70 lakh, from Delhi. His base price was Rs 30 lakh.
As per the auction rules, the franchises did not have the Right To Match (RTM) options. However, for the next two seasons, they can retain a maximum of three shuttlers.
Looking forward to play 2018 for the team 👍👍 pic.twitter.com/yeho50GrnZ
— Saina Nehwal (@NSaina)Squads with players' prices
Ahmedabad Smash Masters: Viktor Axelsen (Rs 80 lakh), Sourabh Verma (Rs 16 lakh), Daren Liew (Rs 33 lakh), Kirsty Gilmour (Rs 26 lakh), Vaishnavi Bhale (Rs 1 lakh), Lee Chun Hei Reginald (Rs 18 lakh), Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (Rs 52 lakh), K Nandagopal (Rs 1 lakh), Sikki Reddy (Rs 29 lakh), Anoushka Parikh (Rs 3 lakh)
Awadhe Warriors: Son Wan Ho (Rs 70 lakh), Guru Sai Dutt (Rs 7 lakh), Lee Dong Keun (Rs 36 lakh), Rasika Raje (Rs 2 lakh), Beiwen Zhang (Rs 39 lakh), Lee Yang (Rs 31 lakh), MR Arjun (Rs 5 lakh), Mathias Christiansen (Rs 37 lakh), Ashwini Ponnappa (Rs 32 lakh), Sanyogita Ghorpade (Rs 1 lakh)
Bengaluru Raptors: Kidambi Srikanth (Rs 80 lakh), B Sai Praneeth (Rs 32 lakh), Mithun Manjunath (Rs 2 lakh), Nygun Tein Minh (Rs 6 lakh), Vu Thi Trang (Rs 9 lakh), Hendra Setiawan (Rs 42 lakh), Marcus Ellis (Rs 20 lakh), Mohammad Ahsan (Rs 42 lakh), Lauren Smith (Rs 20 lakh), Sanjana Santosh (Rs 2 lakh)
Chennai Smashers: Sung Ji Hyun (Rs 80 lakh), Parupalli Kashyap (Rs 5 lakh), Chong Wei Feng (Rs 14 lakh), Rajiv Ouseph (Rs 24 lakh), Saili Rane (Rs 1 lakh), Or Chin Chung (Rs 15 lakh), Chris Adcock (Rs 54 lakh), B Sumeeth Reddy (Rs 10 lakh), Gabrielle Adcock (Rs 36 lakh), Rutaparna Panda (Rs 2 lakh)
Delhi Dashers: HS Prannoy (Rs 80 lakh), Chirag Sen (Rs 1 lakh), Tommy Sugiarto (Rs 70 lakh), Evgeniya Kosetskaya (Rs 5 lakh), Chai Biao (Rs 42 lakh), Maneepong Jongjit (Rs 23 lakh), Wang Sijie (Rs 15 lakh), Vighnesh Devlekar (Rs 1 lakh), Lee Chia Hsin (Rs 20 lakh), V Harika (Rs 1 lakh)
Hyderabad Hunters: PV Sindhu (Rs 80 lakh), Lee Hyun Il (Rs 60 lakh), Rahul Yadav Chittaboina (Rs 3 lakh), Mark Caljouw (Rs 7 lakh), Sai Uttejitha Rao (Rs 1 lakh), Kim Sa Rang (Rs 45 lakh), Arun George (Rs 1 lakh), Bodin Issara (Rs 21 lakh), Eom Hey Won (Rs 37 lakh), Meghana Jakkampudi (Rs 3 lakh)
Mumbai Rockets: Lee Yong Dae (Rs 80 lakh), Sameer Verma (Rs 42 lakh), Anders Antonsen (Rs 55 lakh), Pratul Joshi (Rs 1 lakh), Shriyanshi Pardeshi (Rs 1 lakh), Anura Prabhudesai (Rs 1 lakh), Manu Attri (Rs 18 lakh), Kim Gi Jung (Rs 45 lakh), Pia Zebadiah (Rs 15 lakh), Kuhoo Garg (Rs 2 lakh)
North Eastern Warriors: Saina Nehwal (Rs 80 lakh), Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk (Rs 20 lakh), Tian Houwei (Rs 32 lakh), Siril Verma (Rs 3 lakh), Rituparna Das (Rs 6 lakh), Yoo Yeon Seong (Rs 49 lakh), Liao Min Chun (Rs 20 lakh), Dhruv Kapila (Rs 1 lakh), Kim Ha Na (Rs 40 lakh), Kukkapalli Maneesha (Rs 1 lakh)
Pune 7 Aces: Carolina Marin (Rs 80 lakh), Brice Leverdez (Rs 20 lakh), Lakshya Sen (Rs 11 lakh), Sony Dwi Kuncoro (Rs 10 lakh), Ajay Jayaram (Rs 10 lakh), Line Kjaersfeldt (Rs 31 lakh), Vladimir Ivanov (Rs 17 lakh), Mathias Boe (Rs 50 lakh), Chirag Shetty (Rs 14 lakh), Prajakta Sawant (Rs 3 lakh)
An intriguing Season 4 awaits with energetic lineups and a new team to fight for the coveted title.
How excited are you!?😍 pic.twitter.com/ziU3iQ4c6i
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