Three of the eight icon players – Mithun Manjunath, Prakash Raj and Sai Prateek – fetched their maximum cap price of Rs 3.5 lakh each in the Grand Prix Badminton League (GPBL) auctions here on Sunday.
The inaugural edition of the tournament will be held from July 1 to 10 at the Karnataka Badminton Association. Mithun was picked up by Malnad Falcons while Sai Pratheek was purchased by Mandya Bulls in a draw of lots after four teams bid for the player. Prakash was bought by KGF Wolves at the top price.
The other icon players who went under the hammer were Saneeth Dayanand (Kodagu Tigers, Rs 2.6 lakh), Daniel Farid (Bandipur Tuskers, Rs 3.1 lakh), Raghu Mariswamy (Mangaluru Sharks, Rs 3.3 Lakhs), Tanya Hemanth (Mysore Panthers, Rs 3.2 lakh) and Janani Ananthkumar (Bengaluru Lions, Rs 2.5 lakh).
The player purse per team was Rs 12 lakh out of which Rs 2 lakh was reserved for player awards.
In the auction, where 238 players had registered, 64 players were bought. Fourteen-year-old Rujula Ramu (tier-1) was picked by Kodagu Tigers for Rs 1.8 lakh, while 13-year-old Jade Anil was the youngest player to be sold, picked by Bandipur Tuskers for Rs 30,000.