PKL Teams proving that performance is important than just having a ‘Big Name’

Ambarish Upadhyay

After a two-year gap due to the coronavirus pandemic, the upcoming season of the PKL is all set to begin from December 22. The New Young Players (NYP) draft was carried out on August 29, while the overseas and Category A players and Category A (domestic players) went under the hammer on August 30. The auction for the players in categories B, C, and D took place on August 31.

The auction was full of excitement where some new faces got high price in the auction while some veterans went unsold. The veterans of the game Vishal Mane, Ran Singh, Mohit Chhillar, Rohit Baliyan, Darshan Kadian, Anil Narwal, Farhad Rahimi, Nilesh Salunke, Vikas Kale, Shabeer Bapu, Jaideep Sharma went shockingly unsold.

During the auction, the teams showed immense trust in the youngsters over the veterans in the auction. Even the likes of Rishank Devadiga, Monu Goyat, Girish Ernak were signed on the base price in the last round of the auction. Rahul Chaudhari (40 lakh), Nitin Tomar (61 lakh), Deepak Niwas Hooda (55 lakh), Rohit Kumar (36 lakh), Ajay Thakur (46 lakhs), Manjeet Chhillar (20 lakhs)  were sold almost on the half price of their previous season.

It clearly shows the thought process of the teams. They are giving preference to the game of an individual rather than just recruiting the big names. It will be a Do-or-Die season for most of the big names as the youngsters are making a great impact on the game.

The youngsters Rinku Sharma (32 lakhs, U Mumba), Brijendra Singh (55 lakh, Haryana Steelers), Manjeet Dahiya (92 lakhs, Tamil Thalaivas), Arjun Deshwal (96 lakhs, Jaipur Pink Panthers) & Md. Reza Shadloui (31.5 lakhs, Patna Pirates) had a great run in the auction.

The downfall in the price value of the veterans clearly indicates that the game would be recognized more from the upcoming seasons despite having big names. It would be interesting to watch how well the youngsters will justify their price tag in PKL 8.