Abhinav Manohar gets highest bid as batters dominate Maharaja Trophy auction

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], July 23 (ANI): Batters were in high demand during the Maharaja Trophy by Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) as players like Mayank Agarwal, Manish Pandey and Devdutt Padikkal attracted heavy bids from franchises.

As per ESPNCricinfo, the biggest bid was reserved for the middle-order batter Abhinav Manohar, signed by Shivamogga Lions for Rs 15 lakh. Shivamogga is one of the two new franchises besides Mangalore Dragons, who are part of the six-team tournament running from August 13 to August 29.

Bengaluru Blasters got Mayank for Rs 14 lakh, while Padikkal (Rs 13.2 lakh) and Manish (Rs 10.6 lakh) were signed by defending champions Gulbarga Mystics and Hubli Tigers, respectively.

In all, over 700 cricketers from the state were slotted and auctioned across four groups. The category A featured Indian international-level and IPL stars, while Category B had players who had played in senior-level Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) tournaments. State-level players playing in age-group tournaments by BCCI were a part of Category C while the category D was open for all other players from the state who did not fit these above criteria.

Among the pacers, Vijaykumar Vyshak, who had a debut IPL stint with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) this year, was signed for Rs 8.8 lakh by Mystics, while the Indian pacer Prasidh Krishna, set to return to competitive cricket after more than a year, went to Mysuru Warriors for Rs 7.4 lakhs.

Spin-bowling all-rounders Shreyas Gopal and Krishnappa Gowtham went to Lions and Dragons for Rs 7.4 lakh and Rs 6.6 lakh respectively. Also, batter Karun Nair, a Test triple centurion currently playing county cricket in England, returned to Warriors for Rs 6.8 lakh amid reports that he was looking for opportunities outside the state in domestic cricket. He has not played any form of cricket for Karnataka for more than a year.

Among youngsters, Nikin Jose, who is currently a part of the India ‘A’ team at the Emerging Teams Asia Cup in Sri Lanka was brought by Dragons for Rs 7 lakh, keeping his mind his prolific debut season in 2022-23 across all formats.

The tournament returns to the franchise model after a season in which KSCA had control over all cricketing aspects like player drafts, payments, and appointments of coaches and staff. This was done in order to restore the tournament’s credibility after a series of spot-fixing controversies.

At that time, KSCA’s cricket committee, headed by its then president former India all-rounder and now BCCI president Roger Binny, had formed a group of six selectors, picked from six zones in the state, to take part in the drafts process. The payments done were uniform as per the grades to which players belonged to.

In this edition of the tournament, each team will play the other five twice. Out of these, the top four will qualify for playoffs, which will be held like the IPL format. All matches will be played at M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.

Maharaja Trophy squads

-Gulbarga Mystics: Devdutt Padikkal, KP Appana, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Srinivas Sharath, LR Chethan, Aqib Jawad, R Smaran, KV Aneesh, Macneil Noronha, Sharan Goud, Abhilash Shetty, Hardik Raj, Shimon Luiz, Avinash D, Yashovardhan Parantap, Aadarsh Prajwal, Abul Hasan Khalid, Shaun Joseph

-Hubli Tigers: KC Cariappa, Pravin Dubey, Manish Pandey, Luvnith Sisodia, Shrijith KL, Mohammed Taha, Vidhwath Kaverappa, MB Darshan, Shivam MB, Naga Bharath, Santokh Singh, Mohith BA, Manvanth Kumar L, Mitrakant Singh Yadav, Malliksab G, Nathan D’mello, Rakshekar Harikant, Clement Raju

-Shivamogga Lions: Abhinav Manohar, Shreyas Gopal, Nihal Ullal, Koushik V, Sharath HS, Kranthi Kumar, Rohan Kadam, Shreyas Puranik, Pranav Bhatia, Vinay Sagar, Aditya Somanna, Adhoksh Hegde, Pavan Shridi, Rohan Naveen, Shivaraj, Rohit Kumar K, Nischith Rao, Deepak Devadiga

-Mysuru Warriors: Karun Nair, Suchith J, Prasidh Krishna, Shoaib Manager, Samarth R, Karthik CA, Manoj Bhandage, Venkatesh M, Tushar Singh, Kushal Wadhwani, Shashi Kumar K, Rakshith S, Shreesha S Achar, Monish Reddy, Aditya Mani, Gautam Mishra, Rahul Singh Rawat, Bharath Dhuri

-Bengaluru Blasters: Mithun A, Mayank Agarwal, Pradeep T, Mohammed Sarfaraz Ashraf, Pavan Deshpande, Shubhang Hegde, Nishchal D, Vidyadhar Patil, Jeshwanth Acharya, Jasper EJ, Kumar LR, Mohsin Khan, Aashish Mahesh, Rishi Bopanna, Suraj Ahuja, Aaron Christie, Abhishek Ahlawat, Aman Khan

-Mangalore Dragons: Ronit More, Krishnappa Gowtham, Krishnamurthy Siddharth, Nikin Jose, BR Sharath, Prateek Jain, Aniruddha Joshi, Rohan Patil, Gaurav Dhiman, BU Shivakumar, Thippa Reddy, Aaditya Nair, Aditya Goyal, Doddamani Anand, Kruthik Krishna, Gneshwar Naveen, Dheeraj Gowda, Aneeshwar Gautam.