KATHMANDU, Jan 6: Youngsters Lalit Narayan Rajbanshi, Pawan Sarraf and Bhim Sarki secured highest bids from franchises Kathmandu Goldens, Dhangadhi Stars and Rupandehi Challengers respectively earning highest salary cap of Rs 250,000 each for the third season of the Dhangadhi Premier League (DPL) in an auction held in Kathmandu on Saturday. Also senior national cricketer Aarif Sheikh, Binod Bhandari and Lalit Singh Bandari also bagged the top amount of Rs 250,000 each. Sheikh was bought by Mahendranagar United while Binod and Lalit were purchased by Rupandehi Challengers.

Challengers spent most in the auction with a net total of Rs 1.445 million including the 25 percent penalty on the salary of Bhim Sarki for exceeding the maximum auction purse of Rs 1.2 million.

Similarly, Stars was the team to spend second highest amount of the day with Rs 1.22 million spent on 12 players. CYC Attariya was the least-spending team of the day spending Rs 900,000 on the players subject to a penalty of Rs 100,000 for not meeting the minimum expense purse of Rs 1 million.

Six teams including CYC Attariya and Biratnagar Kings participated in the third straight auction in the third edition of the DPL with the current contracts running for three years starting from 2019. Stars and Kings saw changes in ownership as former owners were replaced by Krishna Bohora and Praful Vaidya respectively. Similarly, Suraj Upreti and Ramesh Silwal continued their ownership of Challengers and Goldens respectively in the tournament.

Apart from the top six earners from the auction, the wicketkeeper-batsman Pradeep Airee was purchased by Challengers spending almost Rs 1 million on only four players. The team also paid Rs 100,000 and Rs 110,000 for Krishna Karki and Sandeep Sunar respectively. Similarly, Puran BK, Anil Kharel, Sumit Maharjan, Suraj Darai, Bikram Sob and Sher Malla were purchased by the franchise the full quota of players. Led by marquee player Basant Regmi, Challengers signed Sher Malla as mandatory local player in the team.

United led by marquee player Sharad Vesawkar got hold of Rohit Kumar Paudel investing Rs 230,000, its second most expensive player. Similarly, the team from the far-west paid Rs 170,000, Rs 120,000 and Rs 100,000 for Avinash Bohora, Amar Singh Routela and Sagar Dhakal respectively.

Dilip Nath, Dipendra Chand, Shahab Alam, Siddhant Lohani, Kushal Malla and Santosh Bhatta were also purchased by United to complete the quota of players to be bought from auction. Likewise, the team announced the signing of Sushil Khadka as its local player.

Nepal national cricket team vice-captain Gyanendra Malla led Kathmandu Goldens that reached the final of DPL last season before losing to now defunct Team Chauraha Dhangadhi.

Lalit Narayan Rajbanshi was its most expensive player of the day followed by Rs 170,000 each for Anil Kumar Sah and Rashid Khan. It also won the auction of young leg-spinner Bikram Bhusal bidding Rs 160,000. Goldens further purchased Sonu Tamang, Surya Tamang, Yogendra Singh Karki, Nandan Yadav, Avinav Yadav, Sudhir Chaudhary and the big one Mehboob Alam to complete its squad. Bikram Thagunna was its nominated local player for the T20 tournament.

The new franchise Dhangadhi Stars, the new avatar of the two-time winner Team Chauraha Dhangadhi, was led by Sompal Kami and went for Amit Shrestha and Sunil Dhamala for identical Rs 180,000 in the auction followed by Saurav Khanal for Rs 160,000. 

Stars further purchased Dipesh Shrestha, Bipin Khatri, Hari Bahadur Chauhan, Raju Rijal, Robeen Chhetri, Sandeep Rajali and Dheeraj Shahi to complete the squad. Krishna Ayer was its local signing. 

Stars had to pay penalty for exceeding the minimum auction budget of Rs 1.2 million. The franchise will play 25 percent of Rs 30,000 which it purchased Shahi for.

Dipendra Singh Airee led CYC Attariya also had to pay penalty of Rs 100,000 for not meeting the minimum budget of Rs 1 million for the auction purse. 

Attariya bought Sandeep Jora and Bhuvan Karki for Rs 230,000 and Rs 210,000 respectively but failed to meet the minimum expense for completing the rest of the squad. 

Jitendra Singh Thakuri, Dipendra Rawat, Prem Tamang, Aadil Ansari, Ramnaresh Giri, Khagendra Joshi, Shubendhu Pandey and Rit Gautam were added in the squad. Similarly, it announced Gyanendra Kunwar as the local player.

The third team with the new ownership after Vaidya replaced Paras Luniya, Biratnagar Kings, was led by Karan KC at the auction table as its marquee player. 

Kings’ most expensive buy of the day was U-19 national cricket team captain Asif Sheikh for Rs 180,000 and Kushal Bhurtel for Rs 160,000. It also paid Rs 120,000 for Prithu Baskota whereas Rs 100,000 each for Kishore Mahato and Susan Bhari. Similarly, it added Arjun Adhikari, Samsaad Sheikh, Rajesh Pulami Magar, Hari Shankar Shah, Amrit Gurung and Trit Raj Das in its squad followed by announcement of local player Suwash Ayer.

National team captain and skipper of Kings last season, Paras Khadka will miss the tournament due to personal commitments whereas globe-trotter Sandeep Lamichhane will be featuring in Bangladesh Premier League for Sylhet Sixers during the time. 

Subash Khakurel, who captained CYC Attariya last season, will miss the current season due to right hand injury whereas Sagar Pun has been sidelined for six months after ongoing a surgery in his right leg.

 
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