Pro Kabaddi League Auction 2018: The unsold seven from the auction
The two-day mega auction ahead of the sixth season of the Pro Kabaddi League came to an end on the 31st of May after the services of 148 players were procured, with the twelve franchises looking to build a formidable setup leading to the upcoming season in October this year.
Having retained some popular names coming into the auctions, the excitement was clearly spotted at the auction table which was decorated with some big names from all walks of life, who came together in order to build the blocks of their team. While the Haryana Steelers went all out in a record ₹1.51 crore bid to add Monu Goyat to their team, the Telugu Titans too seemed firm on getting skipper Rahul Chaudhari back in their ranks, which they managed to do after they matched the final bid of ₹1.29 crore using their 'Final Bid Match' card to a vociferous applause.
Fazel Atrachali emerged as the costliest foreign player in the history of the league after he was snapped up by U Mumba for a whopping ₹1 crore, returning to his maiden franchise. However, all was not rosy as the likes of Manjeet Chhillar and Jasvir Singh had to settle with a thin contract, the former in particular going to the Tamil Thalaivas for his base price of ₹20 lakh.
Apart from Chhillar and Ravinder Pahal, who also went for his base price to Dabang Delhi after initially being unsold, there were some prominent players who missed out from earning a contract. Here is the composition of a team of excellent players who were unfortunate to miss out.
UNSOLD VII
Raiders : Nitin Madane, Gurvinder Singh
Defenders: Kuldeep Singh, Somvir Sekhar, Santhosh BS
All-rounders: Rakesh Kumar (C), Elangeshwaran R
One of the biggest veterans of the sport and an Arjuna awardee, all-rounder Rakesh Kumar's inability to fetch a contract raised a lot of eyebrows as he is also very experienced in the Pro Kabaddi League, picking up 260 points from 55 matches.
Taking up the raiding duties for this team would be the versatile Nitin Madane, whose nippy and agile raiding has fetched him a lot of points -- 165 from 37 matches, to be particular. An able defender, Madane unfortunately missed out joining a team and so did Gurvinder Singh, who was part of the Bengaluru Bulls last season but had to warm the benches with Rohit Kumar and Ajay Kumar shouldering the raiding duties.
Forming the core of the defence would be the highly talented Kuldeep Singh, who had settled into the left corner position during his stint with the Bulls, while, on the other corner would be Santhosh BS, who impressed in his maiden outing for the UP Yoddha.
A silent killer of sorts, Somvir Sekhar, who can easily put to rest the best of raiders, will take over the left cover position.