MUMBAI: India’s second most watched sports  league – Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) – has begun the countdown to its fifth season. With Vivo fixed as the title sponsor for the next five seasons, the player auction got underway on 22 May and will end on 23 May. The 12 teams began bidding for players yesterday to constitute their teams who will battle over 130 matches and 13 weeks of matches for the title. Teams have been allowed to keep aside a team purse of Rs 4 crore each for the bidding, taking the 12 teams kitty to Rs 48 crore – 10 teams the scale it was when it commenced in the first season.

Like earlier, the entire tournament – created by Mashal Sports in which Star India has a 74 per cent stake -  is to be telecast on the Stat Sports bouquet.

With the older eight teams permitted  to retain only one player, the view was that the bidding would touch new highs. And the team owners did not disappoint. While the figures coughed up for the players have some way to go before they touch the cheques which are written out for the IPL, the numbers are only growing.

Team Uttar Pradesh paid out Rs 93 lakh for Nitin Tomar, even as the Bengaluru Bulls signed up Rohit Kumar for Rs 81 lakh and the Jaipur Pink Panthers bid Rs 75.5 lakh for Manjeet Chillar.

Surjeet Singh sold to Bengal Warriors for Rs 73 lakh

Selvamani K sold to Jaipur Pink Panther for Rs 73 lakh

Rajesh Narwal sold to team UP for Rs 69 lakh

Sandeep Narwal sold to Puneri Paltan for Rs 66 lakh

Amit Hooda sold to Tamil Nadu for Rs 63 Lakh

Jeeva Kumar sold to UP for Rs 52 Lakh

Kuldeep Singh sold to U-Mumba for Rs 51.5 lakh

Ravinder Pahal sold to Bangluru for Rs 50 Lakh

Abozar Mohajermighani sold to Team Gujarat for RS 50 lakh

Ran Singh sold to Bengaluru Bulls for Rs 47.5 lakh

Mohit chillar sold to Haryana for Rs 46.5 Lakh

Dharamraj Cheralathan sold to Pune for Rs 46 Lakh

Rakesh Kumar sold to Telugu Titans for Rs 45 lakh

Sachin Shingade was sold to Patna Pirates for Rs 42.5 lakh

Vishal Mane sold to Patna Pirates for Rs 36.5 lakh

Nilesh Shinde sold to Delhi for Rs 35.5 Lakh

Girish Ernak sold to Pune for Rs 33.5 Lakh

Joginder Narwal sold to Mumbai for RS 32 Lakh

AbuFazal sold to Dabang Delhi for Rs 31.8 lakh

Farhad Rahimi sold to Telugu Titans for Rs 29 lakh

Rohit Rana sold to Telugu for Rs 27.5 Lakh

Anil Kumar sold to team Tamil Nadu for Rs 25.50 lakh

Khomsan Thoingkam sold to team Haryana for Rs 20.4 lakh

Dongiu Hong sold to U-Mumba for Rs 20 lakh

Hadi Oshtorok sold to U-Mumba for Rs 18.6 lakh

Ziaur Rehman sold to Puneri Paltan for Rs 16.6 lakh

Suliema Kabir sold to team UP for Rs 12.6 lakh

Yung Kono sold to U-Mumba for Rs 8.1 lakh

Mohammad Maghsoudlou sold to Patna Pirates for Rs 8 lakh

Takamitsu Kono sold to Puneri Paltan for Rs 8 lakh

The auction is showcasing more than 400 players, including over 60 overseas players from Poland, Republic of Korea, England, Sri Lanka, Iran, Thailand, Japan, Pakistan, Mauritius, Malaysia, Bangladesh, China, Taipei, Kenya, Indonesia, Nepal and Oman. 

PKL season 5 will start in the month of July till October with the new geographies for VIVO Pro Kabaddi - Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat have been  chosen primarily for their high affinity towards Kabaddi.

This expansion adds to an already impressive line-up of 8 franchises based out of the major kabaddi centres  in the country – Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Patna, Pune and Jaipur.

The new franchises are:

Team Tamil Nadu: Iquest Enterprises – a consortium) owned by N Prasad & Sachin Tendulkar

Team Haryana: JSW Sports, JSW Group

Team Uttar Pradesh: GMR League Games Pvt Ltd, GMR Group

Team Gujarat: Adani Wilmar, Adani Group

Star India chairman & CEO Uday Shankar said, “I am delighted to welcome some of India’s finest corporates to our Mission Kabaddi. We believe that with the support of existing and new partners we are well on our course to realizing a socially transformative sports agenda. The interest shown by these corporates is evidence of the immense potential of Kabaddi.”

International Kabaddi Federation President Janardan Singh Gehlot said, “We laud Star India and Mashal Sports for uniquely transforming and renewing Kabaddi, and their relentless efforts to scale it even higher. The addition of 4 new teams to the ever-growing VIVO Pro Kabaddi League signifies a promising road ahead for the sport in India as well as over the world.”