PKL Auction: The Players in Different Categories

Vivo Pro Kabaddi League returns for the 10th season this year. The tournament, which began in 2014, is a revolutionary product of Mashal Sports and the broadcasters StarSports. 

The tournament, which usually takes place in June-July was pushed to the latter quarter of the year due to the pandemic in 2021. The PKL 8 took place in December and since then, the tournament is happening in the month of December. The last season’s auction had a live streaming in Disney+ Hotstar as well.

While 2023 is expected to follow the same model, the purse prize money for the franchise is likely to be increased this year. The last season’s fan following is one of the big rasons for the same.

Player Category in PKL

Before the auction, the teams will announce the retained players. They can retain as many as six players and will have to recruit others in the auction. The players, who aren’t retained will enter the auction scene. The players are distributed amongst four categories based on their talent and experience. Each category is further subdivided into all-rounders, defenders and raiders. The base price money for each category varies too. The players in the Category A earns more while the players in the Category D earns the least.

In the last edition, the base price for Category A is INR 30 Lakhs, INR 20 Lakhs for Category B, INR 10 Lakhs for Category C, and INR 6 Lakhs for Category D.

The marquee players are placed in the Category A followed by other categories. The young players from Khelo India School Games winners and runners-up formed the Category D.

The player category list is yet to be announced for the upcoming auction. This will be interesting to follow because, in the last edition, we witnessed several players cross the INR 1 Crore mark. A few bids other than that were surprising too.

In the last edition, Pawan Kumar Sehrawat stunned everyone when he became the highest-paid in the history of the Pro Kabaddi League.

Pawan Sehrawat went to Tamil Thalaivas for a whopping sum of 2.26 Crore.

Guman Singh, who was placed in Category B, became the most expensive player of his category with 1.21 crore from U Mumba.

Fazel Atrachali and Guman Singh are the other two players who fetched more than 1 crore during PKL 9 auction.

The last auction also witnessed a jump in the 1 crore club from two players to four players.

In the 2021 edition, Pardeep Narwal and Siddharth Desai were the two players who were part of a 1 crore club. In the 2022 auction, we had four players.

This year, with several young talents coming up, we shall expect many players to break the 1 crore mark. The performances in the Asia Cup Championships and the Khelo Games

Also, it will be interesting to see if all the four players who grabbed more than 1 Crore INR, gets a big contract this time as well.

While the auction dates for the upcoming edition is yet to be announced, the rumours say that it will take place in the month of August. The auction will have live streaming on Disney+ Hotstar as well. We can expect the retention list from the franchises soon.