L.R. Chethan struck gold as he was procured for a princely sum of ₹8.6 lakh by Kalyani Bengaluru Blasters in the Maharaja Trophy KSCA T20 auction held at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Thursday.
The 24-year-old right-hand bat, who played for Gulbarga Mystics last season, saw his price swell at the mini auction from the ₹6.2 lakh he commanded in 2023. There were also big deals for seasoned cricketers Shreyas Gopal (₹7.60 lakh, Mangaluru Dragons) and K. Gowtham (₹7.4 lakh, Mysuru Warriors). Wicketkeeper bat Luvnith Sisodia earned ₹7.20 lakh from Gulbarga.
Opening batter Mohammed Taha returned to defending champion Hubli Tigers for ₹6.60 lakh, a handsome 4.1 lakh more than his 2023 billing. The 30-year-old Taha was the player of the tournament last year, scoring 448 runs at a strike-rate of 173.64.
Another good performer in left-arm pacer Abhilash Shetty saw a rise in valuation too, shifting to Mangaluru for ₹6.3 lakh as against the ₹1 lakh he earned 12 months ago at Gulbarga. An eye-popping ₹6.2 lakh was splurged by Bengaluru on left-arm speedster Lavish Kaushal, a registered Karnataka State Cricket Association player who was in the lowest Category-D in the auction.
Karnataka’s age-group cricketers, who won the red-ball double of Cooch Behar Trophy (U-19) and Col. C.K. Nayudu Trophy (U-23), were picked up for good amounts with Hardik Raj attracting ₹5.8 lakh from Shivamogga Lions and Macneil Hadley Noronha ₹5 lakh from Mangaluru.
Aneeshwar Gautam, 21, zoomed up to ₹6.20 lakh (Hubli) from ₹2 lakh (Mangaluru), while 18-year-old Samit Dravid, son of Indian legend Rahul Dravid, was picked up by Mysuru for ₹0.5 lakh.
Oft-injured India pacer Prasidh Krishna’s value depreciated from ₹7.4 lakh to ₹1 lakh. Senior cricketer R. Samarth, who scored 422 runs at a strike-rate of 141.61 in 2023 and has since moved to Uttarakhand, skipped the auction.
The 2024 Maharaja Trophy gets underway in Bengaluru on August 15.
The teams (player worth in lakhs): Gulbarga Mystics: Pravin Dubey (6.80), Luvnith Sisodia (7.20), B.R. Sharath (1), Aaditya Nair (0.55), Monish Reddy (1.8), Sharan Goud (0.5), Yashovardhan Parantap (2.20), Nathan D’Mello Joachim (0.6), Faizan Riaz (0.25), Ritesh Bhatkal (0.25), Wahid Faizan Khan (0.25), Abhishek Prabhakar (0.25), Prithvi Shekhawat (0.25), Shimon Luiz (0.5); Retained: Devdutt Padikkal (13), V. Vyshak (8.8), R. Smaran (3.15), K.V. Aneesh (1.1).
Hubli Tigers: K.C. Cariappa (4.20), Mohammed Taha (6.60), Thippa Reddy (3.40), K.P. Karthikeya (1.2), L.R. Kumar (0.5), Aadarsh Prajwal (0.5), Kruthik Krishna (0.5), Aneeshwar Gautam (6.20), Madhav Prakash Bajaj (0.25), Shreesha S. Achar (2.3), Daman Deep Singh (0.25), Mitrakant Yadav (0.35), Nishchith Pai (0.5), Rishi Bopanna (0.5); Retained: Manish Pandey (10.6), K.L. Shrijith (2.1), Vidhwath Kaverappa (6.7), L. Manvanth Kumar (0.6).
Shivamogga Lions: T. Pradeep (1), Hardik Raj (5.80), Dhruv Prabhakar (0.5), Anand Doddamani (1.90), Rajvir Wadhwa (2.20), D. Avinash (5.40), Dheeraj Mohan (0.25), Bharath Dhuri (0.25), Aadithya Vishwa Karma (0.25), Aditya Mani (1), K. Rohit (0.5), Rohan Naveen (0.25), H.S. Sharath (1), B.A. Mohith (0.7); Retained: Abhinav Manohar (15), Nihal Ullal (2.1), V. Koushik (5.9), Shivaraj (1.1).
Mysuru Warriors: J. Suchith (4.8), K. Gowtham (7.4), Vidyadhar Patil (6.4), M. Venkatesh (3.4), Harshil Dharmani (0.5), Goutham Mishra (2), Dhanush Gowda (0.5), Samit Dravid (0.5), Deepak Devadiga (0.65), Sumit Kumar (0.25), Smayan Srivastava (0.25), E.J. Jasper (0.5), Prasidh Krishna (1), Mohammed Sarfaraz Ashraf (1); Retained: Karun Nair (6.8), C.A. Karthik (4.2), Manoj Bhandage (9), S.U. Karthik (0.5).
Kalyani Bengaluru Blasters: Anirudha Joshi (3), M.G. Naveen (2.3), Prateek Jain (1), L.R. Chethan (8.6), M. Kranthi Kumar (4.4), Santokh Singh (0.6), Aditya Goyal (1.1), S. Rakshith (0.75), T.N. Varun Rao (0.65), Niranjan Naik (0.27), Lavish Kaushal (6.20), Varun Kumar (0.25), Shikhar Shetty (0.5), Bheem Rao Navale (0.25); Retained: Mayank Agarwal (14), Shubhang Hegde (4.3), Mohsin Khan (0.5).
Mangaluru Dragons: Shreyas Gopal (7.6), Dheeraj J. Gowda (1), M.B. Darshan (1), Macneil Hadley Noronha (5), Tushar Singh (1.8), K.S. Lankesh (4), Samarth Nagaraj (3), S.S. Sankalp (0.7), Abhilash Shetty (6.3), Nischith Rao (0.5), Lochan S. Gowda (0.5), Pranav Bhatia (0.5), Sanjay Ashwin (0.29), Sagar Solanki (0.25); Retained: K.V. Siddharth (4.4), Nikin Jose (7), Rohan Patil (3.7), Paras Gurbax Arya (0.5).
