Four cricketers draw highest bid in EPL auction

Kathmandu, October 23

Aarif Sheikh, Karan KC, Sandeep Lamichhane and Binod Bhandari drew the highest bids during the auction of the Everest Premier League here today.

The four cricketers — who were listed in Category A — were sold for Rs 175,000 each for the city-based Twenty20 cricket tournament to be organised by the EPL Pvt Ltd at the TU Stadium in December.

Sheikh was picked up by Bhairahawa Gladiators, while Biratnagar Warriors brought KC. Similarly, Lalitpur Patriots bagged Lamichhane and Bhandari was sold to Pokhara Rhinos. Likewise, Pradeep Airee and Basant Regmi became joint second highest amount getters as Airee was sold to Gladiators and Regmi was bought by Warriors for Rs 160,000 apiece.

Likewise, Kathmandu Kings XI bought Sagar Pun, Patriots brought in Mehboob Alam by paying Rs 150,000 to each, while Prithu Baskota was sold to Chitwan Tigers for Rs 140.000. Besides that, Kings XI paid Rs 120,000 each for Jitendra Mukhiya and Naresh Budhayer, while Rajesh Pulami Magar went to Pokhara Rhinos for the same amount. Avinash Karn and Subash Khakurel drew Rs 100,000 each from Biratnagar Warriors and Chitwan Tigers respectively.

Out of the 21 cricketers listed in Category A, only 14 players were picked up by the teams. Anil Mandal, Mahesh Chhetri, Paresh Lohani, Manjeet Shrestha, Sanjam Regmi, Rahul BK and Amrit Bhattarai remained unsold. The base amount for Category A was Rs 100,000 with the ceiling of Rs 175,000.

Similarly, Gladiators picked up Krishna Karki and Bhuwan Karki for Rs 125,000 each, apart from Rohit Kumar Paudel (Rs 95,000), Prakash KC (Rs 75,000) and Dipesh Shrestha (Rs 75,000) from Category B. They bought Bhupendra Thapa (Rs 60,000), Hari Shankar Sah (Rs 60,000) and Abhinash Bohara (Rs 50,000) from Category C.

Warriors picked up Aasif Sheikh (Rs 125,000), Pranit Thapa Magar (Rs 75,000) and Puspa Thapa (Rs 75,000) from Category B as well as Anil Kumar Sah (Rs 105,000), Ram Naresh Giri (Rs 75,000), Sumit Maharjan (Rs 60,000) and Aakash Bista (Rs 50,000) from Category C.

Tigers selected Shahab Alam (Rs 125,000), Lalit Bhandari (Rs 125,000), Yogendra Karki (Rs 105,000), Sandeep Sunar (Rs 75,000), Dilip Nath (Rs 75,000) and Sunam Gautam (Rs 75,000) from Category B, while Kamal Singh Airee (Rs 50,000) and Bhim Sharki (Rs 50,000) were brought in from Category C.

Kings XI picked up Sushil Kandel (Rs 125,000), Siddhant Lohani (Rs 115,000), Raju Rijal (Rs 95,000) and Amit Shrestha (Rs 75,000) from Category B as well as Amar Singh Routela (Rs 75,000), Bikram Bhusal (Rs 70,000) and Puran Vishwakarma (Rs 50,000) from Category C.

Likewise, Patriots bought Kushal Bhurtel (Rs 125,000), Pawan Sarraf (Rs 125,000), Lalit Rajbanshi (Rs 105,000), Rajbir Singh (Rs 85,000) and Shankar Rana (Rs 75,000) from Category B, while Sundeep Jora (Rs 55,000), Sonu Tamang (Rs 50,000) and Rashid Khan (Rs 50,000) were drawn from Category C.

Similarly, Rhinos included Saurabh Khanal (Rs 125,000), Sunil Dhamala (Rs 115,000), Kishore Mahato (Rs 115,000) and Bikram Sob from Category B as well as Bipin Khatri (Rs 50,000), Nurdhoj Sen (Rs 50,000) and Santosh Bhatta (Rs 50,000) from Category C. The base amount for Category B and C were Rs 75,000 and Rs 50,000 respectively.

A total of 160 players had registered for the auction and the organisers shortlisted 90 cricketers with 60 going in to various teams. Gladiators and Warriors became the highest spenders with the matching amounts of one million rupees, while Kings XI and Patriots spent Rs 995,000 apiece. Rhinos invested Rs 980,000 and Tigers spent Rs 920,000 on the players.

Participating six teams have already named their marquee players, while they will select three international players and a local cricketer through talent hunt programmes in their respective zones.

National team skipper Paras Khadka is the marquee player of Warriors, while Vice-captain Gyanendra Malla is the marquee player of Patriots. Sompal Kami is the marquee player of Kings XI, while Gladiators picked up Sharad Vesawkar as the marquee player. Rhinos named Shakti Gauchan as the marquee player, while Tigers picked up U-19 team skipper Dipendra Singh Airee as the marquee player. The base amount for of the marquee players was Rs 200,000.

EPL Managing Director Aamir Akhtar informed that 90 cricketers were considered for the auction to include most of the players who had played for the national team. Akhtar, himself a former national team member, said that the foreign players would be named in November.