Premier Badminton League auction begins - Saina for Lucknow, Chong Wei in Hyderabad
Superstars Saina Nehwal and Lee Chong Wei were picked up by the Lucknow and Hyderabad franchises respectively in a special pre-auction bidding for the newly re-christened PBL on Sunday. P.V. Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth were the top draws for a whopping $95,000 and $80,000 respectively today at the main auctions.
The bidding for the Premier Badminton league (PBL), earlier called the Indian badminton League, was expected to get underway only today. But the owners could not wait to get their hands on the two biggest stars as they were auctioned a day ahead. Five franchises put in $1 lakh bids for Indian superstar Saina Nehwal– the maximum permissible amount. The deadlock was eventually broken by a lottery which was won by Lucknow's Awadh Warriors, reported the Times of India.
Lee Chong Wei, the other sought-after player, was fought over by Mumbai and Hyderabad, both of who bid the maximum again. Hyderabad came out the luckier after they drew the Malaysian in a draw of lots.
“The team owners agreed to conduct the auction for Saina and Chong Wei. Everyone wanted Saina but Awadh Warriors bagged her in the end. Hyderabad got Chong Wei. But we were told that Chong Wei will stay only up to January 10 and he cannot be substituted,” an unnamed team owner told TOI.
The auction for around 50 other players is set to be conducted in New Delhi later today.
Update 1
Premier Badminton League (PBL) India Players Auction List LIVE - https://t.co/cpkL67YHOo pic.twitter.com/R0oX2jmZvW
— Badminton Updates (@badindiaupdates) December 7, 2015Update 2
#PBLAuction2015 updates: #BengaluruTopGuns buy @srikidambi for $80,000! pic.twitter.com/DObaa252RO
— sportscafe.in (@IndiaSportscafe) December 7, 2015Update 3
Reigning Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap, currently out with an injury, was picked up by Hyderabad for $35,000, while HS Prannoy went for $ 47,000 to the Mumbai franchise.
Update 4
#PBLAuction2015 Here's the next buy for #DelhiAcers and #ChennaiSmashers. #Badminton #League pic.twitter.com/4MCvH64YPE
— PBL India (@PBLIndiaLive) December 7, 2015Update 5
On the doubles side, Indian doubles player B. Sumeeth Reddy went at his base price of $25,000 to Bengaluru and his partner Manu Attri was bought by Mumbai Rockets.
2010 Commonwealth Games champions Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa also could not find many takers and went for their base price of $25,000 to their homes cities Hyderabad and Bengaluru respectively.
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