Saina Nehwal, Lee Chong Wei top buys at PBL auction

New Delhi: Top stars Saina Nehwal and Lee Chong Wei were the costliest buys, fetching a whopping $100,000, while Indian shuttlers P.V. Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth were bought for $95,000 and $80,000 respectively at the rechristened Premier badminton League (PBL) players’ auction here on Monday.

World No.2 Saina and former World No.1 Lee were bought by Awadh Warriors of Lucknow and Hyderabad Hunters respectively for approximately

Rs 66,70,745 each in a closed door bidding on Sunday even though their names were mentioned in the players list which went under the hammer in the open session on Monday.

Two-time World Championships bronze medallist Sindhu found herself in the middle of an aggressive bidding on Monday among Delhi Acers, Mumbai Rockets and Chennai Smashers and she was finally bought by Vijakant son Shanmugapandian owned Chennai Smashers for approximately Rs 63,37,207.

World No. 9 Srikanth, who won the Swiss Open and India Super Series this season, attracted fierce bids from Bangalore Top Guns and Mumbai Rockets before being bought by the former for around Rs 53,40,756.

Indonesian player Tommy Sugiarto, who had beaten Srikanth at the finals of Indonesia Masters Grand Prix Gold last week, was picked by Delhi Acers for $74,000 (around Rs 49,36,351).

Among other Indians, Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap, who is recovering from an injury, went to Hyderabad for a lowly $35,000 (Rs 23,347,60), same as Ajay Jayaram, who went to Delhi Acers.

Men’s doubles player B Sumeeth Reddy and Manu Attri went for their base price of $25,000 (Rs 16,67,686) to Bengaluru Top Guns and Mumbai Rockets respectively. The 2010 Commonwealth Games champions Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa, who found themselves in the middle of a controversy after their base price was reduced before the 2013 IBL Players’ auction, went for $30,000 to their homes cities — Hyderabad and Bengaluru respectively.

Promising Indian shuttler HS Prannoy fetched $47,000 (Rs 31,35,250) from the Mumbai franchise, owned by Devyani Leisures Pvt. Ltd, while Thailand’s Tanongsak Saensomboosuk, who had a base price of $15,000, fetched $41,000 from Awadhe Warriors.

Six teams — Hyderabad Hunters, Mumbai Rockets, Delhi Acers, Bengaluru Top Guns, Awadh Warriors, Chennai Smashers — each had a total purse of $270,000 (

Rs 1,80,11,011). Saina and Lee Chong Wei were not part of the auction today as they were sold in a closed-door auction in which five franchises bid $100,000 — the maximum permissible amount — for the Indian superstar.

The decision was reached through a lottery as part of the new PBL rules. Mumbai and Hyderabad wanted to buy Lee Chong Wei and both bid the maximum again but after a draw of lots, the Malaysian went to Hyderabad, owned by Agile Security Force Pvt. Ltd. There was a little chaos and confusion in the auction process, but in the end the franchises seemed satisfied with their respective buys.