The stage for the new season of Pro Kabaddi will begin early next month when over 500 players will go under the hammer at PKL season 9 player auction, which is scheduled to take place on August 5 and August 6 in Mumbai.
Ahead of the auction, teams were allowed a retention of up to six players under the elite players category and four new young players under stipulated conditions. And just a week before the auction, few franchise have announced their retentions.
A total of 111 players were retained across all 3 categories with 19 from the Elite Retained Players (ERP) category, 13 in the Retained Young Players (RYP) category, and 38 in the New Young Players (NYP) category as teams begin to assemble their squads for Season 9 slated to take place later this year.
This year, there are 41 players nominated as New Young Players. The non-retained players will go under the hammer at the auctions in Mumbai between August 5th and 6th, 2022.
Two former champions have revealed their retention list and one big name has not been included as Bengaluru Bulls did not retain star raider - the Hi-Flyer Pawan Sehrawat, who has plied his trade with the franchise for 4 of his 5 seasons in PKL.
Bengaluru franchise has retained 2 defenders and 1 all-rounder from the last season. Mahender Singh, Mayur Jagannath Kadam and GB More were the elite players retained.
Pro Kabaddi 2022 Auction: Date, Rules, Base Price, Salary Purse, Players Retention Details of PKL 9
Another shock from the players let go was, the most expensive player in PKL history as UP Yoddha has not retained Record-breaker Pardeep Narwal, who will join Sehrawat and the rest of the unretained players in the auction.
Meanwhile, Bengal Warriors, the 2019 champions, have unsurprisingly retained their talisman and star raider Maninder Singh ahead of the auction. The other two retention from Warriors were Akash Pikalmunde and Manoj Gowda K. However, some big names will be heading into the auction.
Defending champions Dabang Delhi, on the other hand, have so far retained all-rounder Vijay, while Gujarat Giants retained Sonu. Jaipur Pink Panthers, Telugu Titans, UP Yoddha, Puneri Paltan and Patna Pirates have also revealed their retention list. Haryana Steelers have not retained any player so far.
Here is a list of players retained so far ahead of season PKL Player Auction:
Player | Category | Position | Retained By |
Maninder Singh | Elite Player | Raider | Bengal Warriors |
Akash Pikalmunde | Elite Player | Raider | Bengal Warriors |
Manoj K Gowda | Elite Player | All-rounder | Bengal Warriors |
Mahender Singh | Elite Player | Defender | Bengaluru Bulls |
GB More | Elite Player | All-rounder | Bengaluru Bulls |
Mayur Jagannath Kadam | Elite Player | Defender | Bengaluru Bulls |
Saurabh Nandal | Retained Young Player | Defender | Bengaluru Bulls |
Bharat | Existing New Young Player | Raider | Bengaluru Bulls |
Rohit Kumar | Existing New Young Player | Defender | Bengaluru Bulls |
Vinod Lachmaya Naik | New Young Player | Defender | Bengaluru Bulls |
Vijay | Elite Player | All-rounder | Dabang Delhi |
Naveen Kumar | Retained Young Player | Raider | Dabang Delhi |
Krishan | Existing New Young Player | Defender | Dabang Delhi |
Vinay Kumar | Existing New Young Player | Defender | Dabang Delhi |
Ashu Malik | Existing New Young Player | Raider | Dabang Delhi |
Dipak | New Young Player | Defender | Dabang Delhi |
Sonu | Retained Elite Player | Raider | Gujarat Giants |
Rakesh S | Retained Young Player | Raider | Gujarat Giants |
Gaurav Chhikara | Existing New Young Player | TBC | Gujarat Giants |
Sohit | Existing New Young Player | Raider | Gujarat Giants |
Arjun Deshwal | Elite Player | Raider | Jaipur Pink Panthers |
Sahul Kumar | Elite Player | Defender | Jaipur Pink Panthers |
Deepak R | New Young Player | Defender | Jaipur Pink Panthers |
Abhinesh Nadarajan | Elite Player | Defender | Puneri Paltan |
Sombir | Elite Player | Defender | Puneri Paltan |
Sanket Sawant | Retained Young Player | Defender | Puneri Paltan |
Monu Goyat | Retained Young Player | Raider | Puneri Paltan |
Aslam Inamdar | Retained Young Player | All-rounder | Puneri Paltan |
Pankaj Mohite | Retained Young Player | Raider | Puneri Paltan |
Akash Shinde | New Young Player | Raider | Puneri Paltan |
Govind Gujjar | Retained Young Player | All-rounder | Puneri Paltan |
Aditya Shinde | New Young Player | Raider | Puneri Paltan |
Badal Singh | New Young Player | Defender | Puneri Paltan |
Rinku | Elite Player | All-rounder | UMumba |
Prince | Existing New Young Player | Defender | UMumba |
Rahul Sethpal | Existing New Young Player | Defender | UMumba |
Kamlesh | Exisiting New Young Player | Raider | UMumba |
Shivam | Existing New Young Player | Raider | UMumba |
Mohammedreza Shadlou Chiyaneh (Iran) | Elite Player | Defender | Patna Pirates |
Sajin Chandrashekar | Elite Player | Defender | Patna Pirates |
Neeraj Kumar | Elite Player | Defender | Patna Pirates |
Monu | Elite Player | Raider | Patna Pirates |
Manish | New Existing Young Player | Defender | Patna Pirates |
Rohit | New Existing Young Player | TBC | Patna Pirates |
Nitesh Kumar | Elite Player | Defender | UP Yoddha |
Surender Gill | Retained Young Player | Raider | UP Yoddha |
Sumit | Retained Young Player | Defender | UP Yoddha |
Ashu Singh | Retained Young Player | Defender | UP Yoddha |
Nitin Panwar | New Existing Young Player | All-rounder | UP Yoddha |
Shubham Kumar | New Existing Young Player | Defender | UP Yoddha |
Aman | New Existing Young Player | Raider | UP Yoddha |
Rohit Tomar | New Existing Young Player | Raider | UP Yoddha |
Ajinkya Ashok Pawar | Elite Player | Raider | Tamil Thalaivas |
Sagar | Retained Young Player | Defender | Tamil Thalaivas |
Sahil Gulia | New Existing Young Player | Defender | Tamil Thalaivas |
Aashish | New Existing Young Player | Defender | Tamil Thalaivas |
Mohit | New Existing Young Player | Defender | Tamil Thalaivas |
Himanshu | New Existing Young Player | Defender | Tamil Thalaivas |
Himanshu Singh | Retained Young Player | Raider | Tamil Thalaivas |
M Abhishek | Retained Young Player | Defender | Tamil Thalaivas |
Ankit Beniwal | Retained Young Player | Raider | Telugu Titans |
Rajnish | Retained Young Player | Raider | Telugu Titans |
Muhammed Shihas | Existing New Young Player | Defender | Telugu Titans |
Prince D | Existing New Young Player | Defender | Telugu Titans |
Palla Ramakrishna | Existing New Young Player | Defender | Telugu Titans |
Vinay | Retained Young Player | Raider | Haryana Steelers |
Jaideep | Existing New Young Player | Defender | Haryana Steelers |
Ankit | Existing New Young Player | Defender | Haryana Steelers |
Mohit | Existing New Young Player | Defender | Haryana Steelers |
Meetu | Existing New Young Player | Raider | Haryana Steelers |