Mumbai. The Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) on Tuesday announced the names of players included in the ‘Elite Retained Players’, ‘Retained Young Players’ and ‘Existing New Young Players’ categories for Season 11. Each franchise has retained a strong core group of players and is now looking to build a strong team with the help of the Season 11 Player Auction.
Dabang Delhi KC has retained its raiding duo of Ashu Malik and Naveen Kumar. Meanwhile, star raider and captain Aslam Inamdar, who won the Most Valuable Player award in Season 10, has been retained by Puneri Paltan. Apart from this, Jaipur Pink Panthers have retained their star raider Arjun Deshwal. Deshwal was also the captain of the team last season.
A total of 88 players were retained across three categories, of which 22 are from the Elite Retained Players (ERP) category, 26 from the Retained Young Players (RYP) category and 40 from the Existing New Young Players (ENYP).
The players who were not retained include star players like Pawan Sehrawat, Pardeep Narwal, Maninder Singh, Fazel Atrachalli and Mohammadreza Shadlooi Chiyaneh. All of them will go up for auction at the PKL Season 11 Player Auction scheduled to be held on 15-16 August 2024 in Mumbai.
The domestic and foreign players will be divided into four categories in the PKL Season 11 Player Auction. These categories will be- A, B, C and D. The players will be sub-divided as ‘All-Rounder’, ‘Defender’ and ‘Raider’ in each category.
The base price for each category is as follows:
Category A – Rs 30 lakh
Category B – Rs 20 lakh
Category C – Rs 13 lakh
Category D – Rs 9 lakh
The player pool for Season 11 will include over 500 players, including 24 players from the two finalist teams of the Khelo India University Games 2024. Each franchise has a total salary purse of Rs 5 crore to build its squad.
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