NPL Player Auctions

The NPL is back! After the success of last year’s tournament which saw the Northern Nawabs emerge victorious in a much delayed final, the NUJS Premier League has returned for its second editions. Unlike last year’s tournament where the teams were arranged regionally, the organizers have this year opted to give team owners the freedom to brand their teams as they like. The NPL organisers chose the five captains – Kamaljeet Singh, Dilip Kataria, Shubhajit Banerjee, Adit Pujari and Rahul Sharma – who were given 3000 points to bid for registered players in an open auction, which was held on Tuesday the 8^th of September.

The auction rules were also tweaked this time around, as the captains were expected to buy a minimum of 11 players with their points, failing which their teams would be disqualified. Most of the captains came to the auction well prepared with an idea of the players they were most interested in. While the established old names were highly in demand, some of the captains had been keeping a close eye on the first years playing tennis ball cricket, hoping to pick up a few unknown talents cheaply. As usual, the sequence of players to be auctioned was randomly determined, and with the way things panned out, by the time many of the most anticipated players came on the block many of the captains had severely strained their budgets. Consequently, the prices paid for some players were substantially lower than expected, and the 5^th year Animesh Bisht, also known as RP, was far and above the most valuable player of the 2009 NPL auction. Some heated bidding finally ended with Rahul Sharma snapping him up for 900 points.

By the end of the auction, Dilip and Rahul Sharma husbanded their budgets well to finish up with the largest squads, having made 14 and 13 purchases respectively, while the other 3 captains just managed to fulfil their minimum purchase requirement. All teams now look relatively balanced, and the five captains seemed quite pleased with their new acquisitions after the auction. They also now have the option of recruiting general body members who did not register to be auctioned, upon payment to the NPL organisers. Presently, only three of the squads have found owners, but we hope that when the league commences after the Puja break, Adit Pujari and Rahul Sharma will have been able to tout the respective strengths of their teams to attract viable investors.