Indian badminton sensations PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal surprisingly went for low prices even as the Spanish World No 1 Carolina Marin emerged as the costliest buy in the players' auction at the second edition of the Premier Badminton league here on Wednesday. Srikanth fetched the highest amount by an Indian, with Awadhe Warriors purchasing him for Rs 51 lakhs.
Rio Olympic gold medallist Carolina Marin was bagged by Hyderabad Hunters for a whooping Rs 61.5 lakh. While, the silver medallist Sindhu was retained by Chennai Smashers for arguably the bargain of the tournament for Rs 39 lakh.
Chennai, who had Sindhu in their roster even last year, smartly played the waiting game and didn't bid for a single player until her name popped out.
Despite being unlucky to fetch a low amount after being the hot topic in Indian badminton right now, Sindhu was not bothered about the price tag much.
"In the draw of lots my name came out last so I got less but it is okay. I am just happy to be back with Chennai. After all, no one will think about the money but will remember how Indian badminton is growing and that is what matters," said the shuttler from Hyderabad.
Nehwal didn't cost much for her franchise either as the lucknow based Awadhe Warriors retained her at the base price of Rs 33 lakhs.
Saina, who along with lee Chong Wei, was the costliest buys at $100,000 during the first edition, went unsold in the first round of bidding and was retained by her previous franchise Awadhe Warriors for the base price of Rs 33 lakhs.
"We had the option of right to match and we were waiting for other teams to bid but since no one bid we managed to retain her for the base price," said Avijit Sarkar, Director, Awadhe Warriors, Sahara India.
As anticipated, Marin, who bagged her gold in Olympics by beating Sindhu in the final, was the biggest draw in the morning, with Hyderabad Hunters and Delhi Acers engaged in a fierce bidding battle. Eventually, she was bagged by the Hunters who bid Rs 61.5 lakh. Mumbai Rockets too decided to put most of their eggs in one basket, agreeing to pay Rs 60 lakh for World Number Eight Sung Ji Hyun of Korea.
As many as 154 players went under the hammer, including 16 Olympic medallists. Fifty of them were acquired by the six teams in fray, shelling out their kitty of Rs 1.9 crore each. The base price for the highest bracketed players, the Icons, was Rs 33 lakh while the next best were earmarked at Rs 17 lakh. Each team could acquire a maximum of ten players, including six foreigners. Renowned auctioneer Bob Hayton from United Kingdom conducted the proceedings at the gala auction.
In the men's section, Danish superstar Jan O Jorgensen and India's Srikanth turned out to be the players most in demand.
The World No 6 Dane fetched an impressive Rs 59 lakh, following a three-way battle between the Acers, the Rockets and the Blasters. The Acers had the last laugh, taking the top players in the men's category.
Srikanth was one of the biggest gainers from the auction and went for a huge Rs 51 lakh. He was caught in a keen tug-of-war between the Blasters and the Awadhe Warriors. Neither of them seemed inclined to back down but eventually the Warriors, with more money in their kitty, prevailed. Rio's Olympic bronze medallist Viktor Axelsen went to the Blasters for Rs 39 lakh.
Among the remaining Icon players, the Hunters landed Wee Kiong Tan of Malaysia for Rs 33 lakh and the Rockets Korea's star lee Young Dae for Rs 37.5 lakh. The Chennai side bought Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia for Rs 26 lakh while South Korean Son Wan Ho (Rs 39 lakh) and V Shem Goh of Malaysia (Rs 33 lakh) went to Delhi and lucknow respectively. Another South Korean, YooYeonSeong, went to Bengaluru for Rs 39 lakh.
Among other top Indian names, H S Prannoy and Ajay Jayaram were bought by Mumbai Rockets for Rs 22 lakhs and Rs 19 lakhs respectively, B Sai Praneeth was taken by Hyderabad for Rs 21 lakhs and Chinese Taipei champion Sourabh Varma was fetched for Rs 13 lakhs by Bangaluru.
Doubles specialists Jwala Gutta was bought for Rs 10 lakhs by Delhi, while Ashwini Ponnappa was roped in by the Blasters after using the right to match, following a bid by Delhi for the same amount.
The league will be played from January 1-14, 2017 in a round robin format, with each team clashing with the other once. Each such clash will comprise of five matches: two men' singles, one women's singles, one men's doubles and one women's doubles. Each tie will need to feature at two Indians, apart from the Icon player.
The matches will be three-game affairs, with each game curtailed to only 11 points.
The winners of the league will take home Rs 3 crore while the runners-up Rs 1.5 crore. The losing semifinalists will get richer by Rs 75 lakh.
life has changed a lot: Sindhu
India's face of badminton PV Sindhu believes the responsibility will be high on her now as everyone will be keenly watching her following her terrific run at Rio Olympics, which helped her getting a historic silver medal in the summer.
"life has changed a lot after the Games and now the responsibility are always high and everybody's eyes will be always on me so I think from now onwards I'll have to work harder then what I have been doing," said Sindhu during sidelines of players' auction at the Premier Badminton league. "I think it is just the start and it is not over with the Olympic medal. There are many tournaments like Super Series and All England and World Championship and I want to win them."
Sindhu feels that her performance at the Olympics has helped her to deal with failures and she realises now that she needs to work harder to win medals. "Olympics has changed something inside me. At the Olympics I played against the seeded players and I realised that they will also feel bad losing against a lower ranked player like me, so sometimes people will get depressed but then they go back and work hard and so I also think in the same way and of course a lot has changed after Olympics," she said.
After her battle with Marin at Rio final, now all eyes will be on Sindhu taking on the Spaniard at PBl. "Everybody is talking about me vs Carolina and surprisingly she is in Hyderabad Hunters and it will be a good match and I am looking forward to it. There is always some different rivalry and I enjoy that and it also sort of contributes in badminton as a sport."