Cricket KPL : Mithun is second costliest player; Bulls pay over 31 times above base price to buy Nidhesh. India all-rounder Stuart Binny attracted the highest bid while batsman Nidhesh M was bought for over 31 times above his base price of Rs 10,000 as seven teams spent a total sum of Rs 1,32,05750 at the Karnataka Premier League auction here at the M Chinnaswamy stadium on Saturday.

The teams had a combined purse of Rs 1 crore and 40 lakh with only Belagavi Panthers spending their entire amount of Rs 20 lakh for a complete quota of 18 players. Hubballi Tigers spent the least (Rs 17,60,000) amount though they managed to buy 18 players. Bulls spent almost all their sum but could buy only 15 players, which is the minimum limit for a team, as they splurged some mega bucks on a few stars.

KPL’s newest franchise Namma Shivamogga splurged a whopping Rs 550,000 on Binny after some frenetic bidding from Panthers. The bid for the Rajasthan Royals player, who wasn’t part of the auction the last time around, beat the previous highest price of the day paid for paceman Abhimanyu Mithun who was snapped up by Bulls for Rs 510,000.

“It’s really good to be playing KPL once again,” said Binny. “Last year I was away and missed the tournament. I am very happy to be playing for Namma Shivamogga this year.”
Among the elite Pool A, the players who attracted the big purse on the day were Mayank Agarwal (Rs 380,000, Panthers), Amit Verma (Rs 380,000, Bellary Tuskers), Aniruddha Joshi (Rs 370,000, Tuskers), CM Gautham (Rs 320,000, Mysuru Warriors) and Shreyas Gopal (Rs 310,000, Shivamogga).

The biggest surprise of the day was Robin Uthappa going for way below the expected range. The dashing opener, who was the costliest player in the previous auction at Rs 530,000 paid by Tuskers, went to Bulls for Rs 340,000 after some low-key competition with Panthers.

While the lack of interest by the teams in the India player was unexpected, Nidhesh soared beyond expectations as six teams got into a bidding war for the 28-year-old who was once tipped to make it big from the State stables. Bijapur Bulls finally beat the challenge of five other teams to buy the player for Rs 315,000.

Some of the biggest gainers were those who came back for auction after going unsold and players who were listed by the franchises from Pool B’s second lot.

Panthers coughed up Rs 260,000 on Praveen Dubey while Tuskers shelled out Rs 220,000 on SP Manjunath. Warriors too parted with Rs 220,000 to buy Manjesh Reddy. Left-handed Rohan Kadam went to Mangalore for a cool Rs 170,000.

The KSCA, the organisers of the event, announced that they would pay 25% of the amount each player was bought for at the auction.

The squads (R denotes retained player, all amounts in rupees)

Belagavi Panthers: From Pool A: R Vinay Kumar (R, 460,000), Abhishek Reddy (65,000), Jonathan R (120,000), Mayank Agarwal (3,80,000), Sharath HS (50,000). From Pool B: Syed Moinuddin (60,000), Pradeep T (110,000), Bharath BN (1,70,000), Rohit Sabharwal (10,000), Rohan Kadam (1,70,000), Mitrakanth Yadav (10,000), Nihal Shilar (10,000), Arshdeep Singh Brar (10,000), Nishcith Raj (10,000), Rahul Gautham (10,000), Abhishek Bhat (10,000), Mashooq Hussain (10,000), Praveen Kumar B (10,000).

Bellary Tuskers: Pool A: Nischal D (R, 50,000), Devraj Patil (R, 10,000), Pawan Deshpande (180,000), Aniruddha Joshi (370,000), Bharath Chipli (90,000), Amit Verma (380,000). Pool B: Suresh Karani (10,000), Vinoo Prasad (35,000), Niyaz Nisar (40,000), Zeeshan Ali Sayyed (55,000), Stalin Hoover (100,000), Bharath KN (255,000) Akshay Kodoth (35,000), Chiranjeevi GS (45,000), Ruchith Joshi (10,000), Nitin Mulki (10,000), Pushtak Nag (20,000), Praveen Dubey (260,000), Abdul Majid (50,000).

Bijapur Bulls: Pool A: Samarth R (R, 130,000), KC Cariappa (R, 50,000), A Mithun (510,000), Robin Uthappa (340,000), B Akhil (130,000). Pool B: Raghavendra C (10,000), KP Apannna (60,000), Vyshak V (165,000), Rajoo Bhatkal (90,000), Aditya Somanna (80,000), Suneel Raju (85,000), Sharath BR (10,000), Deepak Chougale (10,000) Nidhesh M (3,15,000), Ritesh Bhatkal (10,000).

Hubli Tigers: Pool A: KL Rahul (R, 200,000), S Arvind (R, 300,000), Akshay SL (140,000), Kranthi Kumar (180,000), KB Pawan (50,000). Pool B: Akshay Wakere (70,000), Likith Bannur (60,000), N C Aiyappa (1,35,000), Prasidh Krishna (90,000), Koushik V (10,000), Karthik C A ( 30,000), Manjunath SP (2,20,000), Prasanna Patil (90,000), Manoj KH (100,000), Arvind B Reddy (10,000), Harsha B (10,000), Dhuri B (20,000).

Mangalore United: Pool A: Karun Nair (R, 465,750), Ronit More (R, 190,000), Shishir Bhavane (250,000), Udit Patel (Rs 240,000), Avinash KC (50,000). Pool B: Naveen B (125,000), Shashi Shelar (10,000), Prateek Jain (155,000), Chetan Williams (140,000), Kiran AM (40,000), Suraj Sampath (50,000), Kunal Kapoor (170,000), Shivil Koushik (65,000), Dikshanshu Negi (95,000), Mohammad Taha (10,000), Rohan Raju (10,000), Nishanth Shekhawat (10,000), Abhinav Manohar (10,000).

Mysuru Warriors: Pool A: (R, J Suchith, 90,000), Manish Pandey (310,000), CM Gautham (320,000), Gowtham K (110,000), David Mathias (170,000). Pool B: Darshan MB (70,000), Shoiab Manager (125,000), Naveen MG (235,000), Nikin Jose (10,000), Liyan Khan (35,000), Abhilash Semwal (20,000), Anand Doddamani (10,000), Arjun Hoysala (10,000), Suneel Kumar DH (10,000), Manjesh Reddy (220,000), Nihal Ullal (40,000), Tejas Subramanium (10,000), Kuldeep Kumar (10,000).

Namma Shivamogga: Pool A: Sadiq Kirmani (140,000), Shreyas Gopal (310,000), Abrar Kazi (180,000), Stuart Binny (550,000). Pool B: Daivik Vishwanath (10,000), Vikram Venkatesh (10,000), Sinan Abdul Khader (50,000), Hoysala K (30,000), Aditya B Sagar (125,000), Milind Ramesh (40,000), Siddharth KV (60,000), Samarth Ooty (10,000), Dinesh Borwankar (60,000), Mir Kaunian Abbas (2,15,000), Pradeep Gangadhar (10,000), Bhavesh Gulecha (85,000), Murali Krishna (20,000), Darshan Machiiah (20,000).

Quick takes

Top five buys in Pool A: Stuart Binny (Shivamogga, Rs 550,000), 1; A Mithun (Bulls, 510,000), 2; Karun Nair (Mangalore, Rs 465,750) 3; R Vinay Kumar (Panthers, Rs 460,000), 4; Mayank Agarwal (Panthers, Rs 380,000) and Amit Verma (Tuskers, Rs 380,000), 5.

Bargain buys (base price 50,000): Bharath Chipli (Tuskers, Rs 90,000), HS Sharath (Panthers, Rs 50,000), Avinash KC (Mangalore, Rs 50,000).

Those who broke the bank in Pool B (base price 10,000): Nidesh M (Bulls, Rs 315,000), Bharath KN (Panthers, Rs 265,000), Praveen Dubey (Panthers, 260,000), Naveen MG (Warriors, Rs 235,000), Manjunath SP (Tuskers, 220,000), Manjesh Reddy (Warriors, 220,000), Mir Kaunian Abbas (215,000), Bharath BN (Mangalore, Rs 170,000), Rohan Kadam (Mangalore, 1,70,000), Vyshak V (Bulls, 165,000).