Kathmandu, February 21

Basant Regmi, Karan KC, Sagar Pun and Aarif Sheikh became the most expensive players as teams splashed out over five million rupees in the players’ auction for the Ruslan Dhangadhi Premier League.

The four players from Category A were sold for the maximum bid amount of Rs 150,000 each during the players auction organised by Dhangadhi Cricket Academy today. The base amount for the category was Rs 75,000.

Regmi was sold to Biratnagar Kings in a draw after CYC Attariya, Kathmandu Goldens and Rupandehi Challengers also splashed maximum amount for the national team spinner.

Similarly, KC and Sheikh went to Mahendranagar United. The hero of the ICC World Cricket League match against Canada KC drew bids from all six teams, while Attariya, Kathmandu, Biratnagar and Team Chauraha were in race for Sheikh.

Rupandehi got Pun despite bidding from Mahendranagar and Chauraha. A total of 16 players were in Category A but only 12 players were sold.

Biratnagar paid Rs 120,000 to Prithu Baskota, while Kathmandu bought Naresh Budhayer for the same amount.

Similarly, Rupandehi paid Rs 90,000 for Jitendra Mukhiya and Rs 80,000 for Pradeep Airee, while Mahendranagar bought AvinashKarn for Rs 80,000 and paid Rs 75,000 for Manjeet Shrestha, who remained unsold in the first bidding.

Mehboob Alam, Chandra Saud, Rahul BK and Sanjam Regmi were unsold players from the category.

Meanwhile, Biratnagar, who have named national cricket team skipper Paras Khadka as the strategic player, paid maximum amounts of Rs 100,000 each to five players to bring them in from Category B. Biratnagar were lucky in the bidding to get Pawan Sarraf, Ramnaresh Giri, Saurabh Khanal, Dilip Nath and Anil Kumar Sah. Base amount for the category was Rs 50,000.

Similarly, Category C players Puran BK and Avinash Bohara got maximum amount of Rs 50,000 each from Biratnagar, who also paid base amount Rs 25,000 for Firtosh Ansari. Biratnagar paid Rs 25,000 to buy Subodh Ayer from Category D. The base amount for Category D was Rs 10,000.

Likewise, Kathmandu, who have Gyanendra Malla as the strategic player, paid Rs 100,000 each to buy  Category B players Lalit Rajbanshi, Ami tShrestha, Kishor Mahato and Shahab Alam, while they paid Rs 95,000 for Santosh Bhatta and Rs 55,000 each to Rashid Khan and PuspaThapa.

Kathmandu also bought Sanjay Shrestha and Bhupendra Thapa for Rs 30,000 each and paid Rs 25,000 for Sanjay Basnet from Category C. Kathmandu paid Rs 25,000 for Category B player Bikram Thagunna.

Likewise, Mahendranagar, with Binod Bhandari as the strategic player, paid Rs 100,000 each for Bhuwan Karki and Rohit Kumar Paudel as well as Rs 95,000 for Hari Shankar Sah, Rs 65,000 for Pranit Thapa Magar and Rs 55,000 for Asif  Sheikh from Category B.

Mahendranagar paid Rs 45,000 for Arun Airee and Rs 25,000 each for Robeen Chhetri and Dipendra Chand from Category C, while they bought category D player Narayan Joshi for Rs 25,000.

Chauraha, who have picked Sompal Kami as the strategic player,  paid Rs 100,000 each for Category B players Yogendra Singh Karki, Lalit Bhandari, Sonu Tamang and Sunil Dhamala, while Shankar Rana and Rabindra Jung Shahi were bought for Rs 55,000 each. Raju Rijal got Rs 50,000 from Chauraha after being unsold in first bidding.

Chauraha paid Rs 50,000 for Category C player Samsad Sheikh, Rs 30,000 for Aashu Kandoi and Rs 25,000 for Mahesh Adhikari. They bought BijayRana for Rs 10,000 from Category D.

Rupandehi, who have Shakti Gauchan as strategic player, paid Rs 100,000 each for Category B players Bikram Bhusal, Sushan Bhari and Siddhant Lohani as well as Rs 55,000 for Kushal Malla and Rs 50,000 for Dipesh Shrestha. Category C players Ansari and Amar Singh Routela were sold for Rs 50,000 each to Rupandehi, who paid Rs 15,000 for Category D player Prakash Jaisi.

Similarly, Attariya — who have Dipendra Singh Airee as the strategic player — paid Rs 100,000 each for Kushal Bhurtel and Krishna Karki, Rs 90,000 for Sandeep Jora, Rs 85,000 for Suwarnakar Uraw as well as Rs 55,000 each for Prem Tamang, Kamal Singh Airee and Binod Lama to buy them from Category B.

Attariya spent Rs 25,000 each for Category C players Bhuwan KC, Aakash Thapa and Roman Bam and Category D player Sagar Bhandari.

After the auction, the participating six teams got 13 members and they will bring in are two foreign cricketers in the 15-member squad.

The tournament is slated for March 31 to April 14 at the SSP grounds in Dhangadhi. The winners and runners-up of the tournament will get Rs 2.5 million and one million rupees respectively, while teams finishing third and fourth will get Rs 300,000 and Rs 200,000 respectively.