Nitin Tomar Is The Costliest Buy At The Pro Kabaddi Auctions As Uttar Pradesh Rope Him In For Rs 93 Lakh

Raider Nitin Tomar emerged the costliest buy at the Pro Kabaddi Season 5 auctions, upstaging the likes of raider Rohit Kumar bought by Bengaluru Bulls for Rs 81 lakh, Manjeet Chillar, who went for Rs 75.5 lakh, and defender Surjit, who was aquired by Bengal Warriors for Rs 73 lakh.

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The 22-year-old from Baghpat's Malikpur village was snapped up by Team Uttar Pradesh after an intense battle with Telugu Titans for Rs 93 lakh. Earlier, only a handful of players who went under the hammer on Monday evening were present at the venue. And, Manjeet, bagged by Jaipur Pink Panthers could not stop grinning as a riveting bidding process ensued amongst the 12 competing teams.

It was just rewards for a player, hailing from Nizampur in Haryana, who has given it his all over the past many years. The all-rounder emerged the Most Valuable Player of Season 2, representing Bengaluru and was awarded with the prize for the best defender a year earlier.

As far as spending patter ns of teams is concerned, the auctions also showcased the distance the league has travelled since 2014, when the inaugural edition was held. That year Rakesh Kumar, one of India's all time greats, was acquired by Patna Pirates for Rs 12.8 lakhs, a figure that happened to be the highest at that time.

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With every team enjoying a purse of Rs 4 crore each, there was leeway to splurge on players they deemed important to their scheme of things, and it resulted in the likes of young Indian defender Surjeet going for Rs 73 lakh to the Warriors, raider K Selvamani whipping up a price of Rs 73 lakh from Jaipur, all-rounder Rajesh Narwal going to Team Uttar Pradesh for Rs 69 lakh and Puneri Paltan spending a princely Rs 66 lakh on the dependable all-rounder Sandeep Narwal.

Surjeet's bid of Rs 73 lakh meant that Korea's Jang Kun Lee, whom Bengal had retained, will be get richer by over Rs 80 lakh, thanks to the dynamic model pricing adopted by the organisers.

The other important development of the evening was the cold shoulder that was meted out to the 10 Pakistani players, who had been made available.None of the 12 teams were in the mood of risking controversy and chose to ignore them. Manjeet, who rarely shies away from speaking his mind, said that according to him, Pakistan's players don't deserve to be a part of the league and supported the apprehensions of the franchises. "Their names should not feature while discussing this league," he said.

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Players from Iran were amongst the most costliest, with Abozar Mohajermighani going to Team Gujarat for Rs 50 lakh. His countrymate Abolfazel Maghsodlo was picked by Dabang Delhi for Rs 31.8 lakh. Another Iranian, Farhad Rahimi went richer by Rs 29 lakh with Telugu Titans evincing interest in him.

Defender Mohit Chhillar, the costliest player of Season Four, on whom the Bengaluru Bulls spent Rs 53 lakh, went for Rs 46.5 lakh to Team Haryana on Monday. Meanwhile, three of the four new franchises, made their priority picks before the auction commenced, with defender Surender Nada going to Haryana, Team Gujarat opting for Iran's Fazel Atrachali, Team Tamil Nadu going for raider Ajay Thakur and UP staying away from picking anyone.