Saina Nehwal, Lee Chong Wei top buys at PBL auction

Top stars Saina Nehwal and Lee Chong Wei were the costliest buys, fetching the maximum prize of $100,000, while home shuttlers P.V. Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth were bought for a whopping $95,000 and $80,000 respectively, at the rechristened Premier badminton League players’ auction here on Monday.

World no. 2 Saina and former world no. 1 Lee were bought by Awadh Warriors of Lucknow and Hyderabad Hunters respectively, in a last-minute pre-auction bidding on Sunday night even though their names were mentioned in the players list which went under the hammer on the day.

Two-time bronze medallist at the World Championship and winner of the Macau Open, Sindhu found herself in the middle of an aggressive bidding among Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai and she was finally bought by Vijakant son Shanmugapandian owned Chennai Smashers for $95,000.

CWG champion Parupalli Kashyap, who is recovering from an injury, went to Hyderabad for $35,000, doubles player B. Sumeeth Reddy went at his base price of $25,000 to Bengaluru, while his men’s doubles partner Manu Attri was bought by Mumbai Rockets.

2010 Commonwealth Games champion Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa, however, went for their base price of $25,000 to their homes cities — Hyderabad and Bengaluru, while H.S. Prannoy fetched $47,000 from Mumbai franchise.

The lucrative tournament will kickstart on January 2 in Mumbai and the finale will take place here on January 17.