As many as 126 players will go under the hammer during the Vidarbha Premier League (VPL) Season 2 Players’ Auction scheduled to be held on May 3.
The auction will be conducted by renowned presenter Charu Sharma. The first half of the auction will be telecast live on Sony TEN 5 from 10 am to 12.30 pm. Along with the auction pool, 32 top Vidarbha players have already been retained by the six franchises. Teams were allowed to retain a maximum of six players two each from Categories A, B and C as classified by the VCA from last season’s squad.
Defending champions NECO Master Blaster and last year’s runners-up Pagariya Strikers retained six players each, while Bharat Rangers, Orange Tigers, India Warriors (formerly Nagpur Titans) and Nagpur Heroz retained five players each.
Out of the 126 players in the auction pool, nine marquee players have been placed in Category A with a base price of Rs 2.5 lakh. The list includes Umesh Yadav, Harsh Dubey, Praful Hinge, Dhruv Shorey, Ravikumar Samarth, Darshan Nalkande, Nachiket Bhute, Dipesh Parwani and Mandar Mahale.
Category B has 43 players with a base price of Rs 1.5 lakh, while Category C consists of 74 players with a base price of Rs 1 lakh.
Each franchise has been allotted an auction purse of Rs 42 lakh to build a minimum 15-member squad, including retained players. Franchises can spend a maximum of Rs 17 lakh on retentions. Teams retaining only five players will have the remaining retention amount added to their auction purse.
This will be the first time the VPL will hold a players’ auction for the men’s tournament. The league has also added one more team Pagariya Strikers to the women’s tournament, which will be held simultaneously from June 1 to 14. However, there will be no auction for women players this season.
👉 Click here to read the latest Gujarat news on TheLiveAhmedabad.com