Premier Badminton League Auction: Who got traded where?

The Premier Badminton League (PBL) is a franchise league managed by the Badminton Association of India. The third season of the PBL is about to kickstart from December 22, 2017. In this edition of PBL, two more franchises are to take part, making it a total of 8 teams. The freshers are the Ahmedabad Smash Masters and the North Eastern Warriors.

The PBL 2018 auction took place on Monday and a staggering total of 133 players were up to be traded. There were some of the biggest stars of the badminton world like Saina Nehwal, Srikanth Kidambi and PV Sindhu, who are the icon players of India. Apart from these, stars like world champion Viktor Axelsen, former World No. 1 Son Wan Ho, women's singles World No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying were some of the top grabs.

The PBL 3 auction have certain rules. There will be a total of 11 players in each team. There can be a maximum of 5 foreign players and a minimum of 3 women players in each team. A team can only have a maximum of 2 icon players and a minimum of one, besides which one player has to be from the U-17 category. The total team budget is Rs. 2.1 crore and each team can only bid a maximum of Rs. 72 lacs for a certain player.

Next, is a complete list of all the players and the teams they got traded into:

Ahmedabad Smash Masters: Tai Tzu Ying (52 lacs), Sourabh Verma (13 lacs), HS Prannoy (62 lacs), Kidambi Nandagopal (1 lacs), Law Cheuk Him (18 lacs), Lee Reginald (32 lacs), Kamilla Rytter Juhl (35 lacs), Tai Tzu Ting (52 lacs).

North Eastern Warriors: Tzu Wei Wang (52 lacs), Prajakta Sawant (7 lacs), Chirag Shetty (5 lacs), Shin Baek Cheoul (55 lacs), Ruthvika Shivani Gadde (9 lacs), Michelle Li (15 lacs), Ajay Jayaram (44 lacs).

Hyderabad Hunters: Carolina Marin (50 lacs), Sai Praneeth (retained for 40 lacs), Lee Hyun II (53 lacs), (Pia Zebadiah (14 lacs), Yoo Yeon Seong (53 lacs), Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (retained for 3.75 lacs).

Mumbai Rockets: Sameer Verma (52 lacs), Beiwen Zhang (33 lacs), Son Wan Ho (50 lacs), Gabriela Stoeva (20 lacs), Lee Yong Dae (retained for 46.8 lacs), Tan Boon Heong (25 lacs).

Delhi Acers: Shreyanshi Pardeshi (1 lac), Tian Houwei (58 lacs), Vladimir Ivanov (retained for 33.75 lacs), Sung Ji Hyun (50 lacs), Ashwini Ponnappa (20 lacs), Aarthi Sara Sunil (3 lacs), Ivan Sozonov (retained for 18 lacs), Pranaav Jerry Chopra (18 lacs).

Awadhe Warriors: Or Chin Chung (8 lacs), Parupalli Kashyap (20 lacs), Srikanth Kidambi (retained for 56.1 lacs), Tang Chun Man (10 lacs), Christinna Pedersen (42 lacs), Saina Nehwal (retained for 41.2 lacs), Hendra Setiawan (45 lacs).

Chennai Smashers: Brice Leverdez (18 lacs), Tanongsak S (25 lacs), Chris Adcock (54 lacs), Gabrielle Adcock (48 lacs), Lee Yang (25 lacs), Sumeeth Reddy (3 lacs), PV Sindhu (retained for 48.75 lacs).

Bengaluru Blasters: Harsheel Dani (4 lacs), Kim Sa Rang (49 lacs), Mathias Boe (41 lacs), Manu Attri (17 lacs), Victor Axelsen (50 lacs), K Maneesha (5 lacs), Sikki Reddy (retained for 6.2 lacs), Kirsty Gilmour (33 lacs).

The auction was carried out by renowned auctioneer Robert Hayton. The prize money for the winners of the event is set at Rs. 6 crore, out of which Rs. 3 crore will be claimed by the winner, Rs. 1.5 crore will go to the runner-up, and the semi-finalists will get Rs. 75 lacs each.

The event will be on from December 22, 2017 to January, 14, 2018, running over a period of 24 days.