PRO KABADDI LEAGUE ANNOUNCES PLAYER RETENTIONS AHEAD OF SEASON 12 AUCTION!
The Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) – on Saturday – announced the ‘Elite Retained Players’, ‘Retained Young Players’, and ‘New Young Players’ for Season 12, with the season 12 auction set to take place on May 31 and June 1 in Mumbai. While most franchises have retained their key players, they will also be looking to build stronger units in the upcoming PKL Season 12 Player Auction.
Top players retained by their respective teams include Sunil Kumar and Amirmohammad Zafardanesh (U Mumba), Jaideep Dahiya (Haryana Steelers), Surender Gill (UP Yoddhas), and the Puneri Paltan duo of Aslam Inamdar and Mohit Goyat.
Meanwhile, a total of 83 players were retained across three categories: 25 in the Elite Retained Players (ERP) category, 23 in the Retained Young Players (RYP) category, and 35 in the New Young Players (NYP) category.
500+ players, including notable Indian players like Pawan Sehrawat, Arjun Deshwal, Ashu Malik and PKL 11’s top raider Devank Dalal, are set to go under the hammer. Iranian powerhouses Fazel Atrachali and Mohammadreza Shadloui alongside PKL veterans Maninder Singh, and Pardeep Narwal, will also enter the PKL 12 auction.
An interesting statistic to note is that star raider Naveen Kumar will go under the hammer for the first time. The PKL 8 winner will enter the auction having scored 1102 Raid Points for Dabang Delhi K.C. across six seasons. He will be the first player in the history of the league to have 1000+ points with a single team before entering a PKL auction.
For the auction, both domestic and overseas players will be divided into four categories: A, B, C, and D. Within each category, players will be further classified as ‘All-Rounders’, ‘Defenders’, and ‘Raiders’. The base prices for each category are:
- Category A: INR 30 Lakh
- Category B: INR 20 Lakh
- Category C: INR 13 Lakh
- Category D: INR 9 Lakh
Each franchise will have a total salary purse of INR 5 Crore available for its squad.
The list of “Elite Retained Players” is appended below:
| TEAM | PLAYER 1 | PLAYER 2 | PLAYER 3 | PLAYER 4 | PLAYER 5 | PLAYER 6 |
| Bengal Warriors | Vishwas S | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ |
| Bengaluru Bulls | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ |
| Dabang Delhi K.C. | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ |
| Gujarat Giants | Himanshu Singh | Himanshu | _ | _ | _ | _ |
| Haryana Steelers | Rahul Sethpal | Vinay | _ | _ | _ | _ |
| Jaipur Pink Panthers | Reza Mirbagheri | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ |
| Patna Pirates | Hamid Mirzaei Nader | Thiyagarajan Yuvaraj | _ | _ | _ | _ |
| Puneri Paltan | Abinesh Nadarajan | Gaurav Khatri | Pankaj Mohite | _ | _ | _ |
| Tamil Thalaivas | Moein Shafaghi | Himanshu | Sagar | _ | _ | _ |
| Telugu Titans | Shankar Bhimraj Gadai | Ajit Pandurang Pawar | _ | _ | _ | _ |
| U Mumba | Sunil Kumar | Rohit | Amir Mohammad Zafardanesh | Satish Kannan | _ | |
| UP Yoddhas | Sumit | Bhavani Rajput | Sahul Kumar | Surender Gill | Ashu Singh | _ |
The list of “Retained Young Players” is appended below:
| TEAM | PLAYER 1 | PLAYER 2 | PLAYER 3 | PLAYER 4 | PLAYER 5 |
| Bengal Warriorz | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ |
| Bengaluru Bulls | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ |
| Dabang Delhi K.C. | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ |
| Gujarat Giants | Parteek Dahiya | Rakesh | _ | _ | _ |
| Haryana Steelers | Shivam Anil Patare | Jaideep | Jaya Soorya NS | Vishal S. Tate | _ |
| Jaipur Pink Panthers | Abhishek KS | _ | _ | _ | _ |
| Patna Pirates | Sudhakar M | _ | _ | _ | _ |
| Puneri Paltan | Aslam Mustafa Inamdar | Mohit Goyat | Dadaso Shivaji Pujari | Aditya Tushar Shinde | _ |
| Tamil Thalaivas | Nitesh Kumar | Narender | Ronak | Vishal Chahal | Aashish |
| Telugu Titans | Ankit | Praful Sudam Zaware | _ | _ | _ |
| U Mumba | Mukilan Shanmugam | _ | _ | _ | _ |
| UP Yoddhas | Hitesh | Gagana Gowda HR | Shivam Chaudhary | _ | _ |
The list of “Existing New Young Players” is appended below:
| TEAM | PLAYER 1 | PLAYER 2 | PLAYER 3 | PLAYER 4 |
| Bengal Warriorz | Yash Malik | Manjeet | Deep Kumar | Sushil Kambrekar |
| Bengaluru Bulls | Chandranaik M | Lucky Kumar | Manjeet | Pankaj |
| Dabang Delhi K.C. | Sandeep | Mohit | _ | _ |
| Gujarat Giants | _ | _ | _ | _ |
| Haryana Steelers | Sahil | Manikandan N | Vikas Ramadas Jadhav | _ |
| Jaipur Pink Panthers | Ronak Singh | Nitin Kumar | Sombir | Ritik Sharma |
| Patna Pirates | Ayan | Navdeep | Deepak | Sahil Patil |
| Puneri Paltan | _ | _ | _ | _ |
| Tamil Thalaivas | Anuj Kaluram Gawade | Dhiraj Ravindra Bailmare | _ | _ |
| Telugu Titans | Sagar | Chetan Sahu | Nitin | Rohit |
| U Mumba | Ajit Chouhan | Deepak Kundu | Lokesh Ghosliya | Sunny |
| UP Yoddhas | Jayesh Vikas Mahajan | Gangaram | Sachin | Keshav Kumar |
Under the aegis and sanction from the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI), Mashal Sports and Star India Pvt. Ltd. have built PKL into one of India’s most successful sports leagues. The competition consists of the largest number of matches among all sports leagues in India. The Pro Kabaddi League has transformed India’s indigenous sport of Kabaddi and its athletes nationally and globally.
