Hockey India League (HIL) auction to be held on September 17; Mumbai hold on to fewest players

PR Sreejesh has been retained the Uttar Pradesh Wizards.

The auction for the fourth season of the Hockey India League(HIL) will take place on the 17th of September. A total of 135 Indian players and 142 foriegn players will go under the hammer at the auction, the Times of India reports.

The franchises will bid for players from India, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, England, USA, South Africa, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Malaysia, Scotland, Korea and Japan in order to build a competent team.

Hockey India had given the six franchisees the option of retaining as many as 3 Indian players and as many overseas players as they wished to while releasing the remaining players from the squad.

Based on the new rules and regulations, franchisees can have a squad of 20 players, with 12 among them being Indians while the remaining 8 foreigners. Current champions Ranchi Rays have retained 6 players. Skipper Ashley Jackson, Barry Middleton and Fergus Kavanagh being the overseas professionals while Manpreet Singh, Birendra Lakra and Kothajit Singh are the Indian players, whom they have retained.

The runners-up from the competition the Punjab Warriors will be looking to buy a young goalkeeper after letting go of Netherlands's Jaap Stockmann. Among the players that they have retained include SV Sunil, Varun Kumar and the young Satbir Singh. The Warriors retained 3 foreigners as well, all of them being Australians- Chris Ciriello, Mark Knowles and Jacob Whetton.

The 2014 champions Delhi Waveriders retained the same number of players as the Warriors that include Simon Child, Tristan White and Stevan Edwards in the foreigners category and Talwinder Singh, Yuvraj Walmiki and Surender Kumar among the Indians.

Dabang Mumbai retained the least number of players among all teams at three and let go of the rest of the squad. The Kalinga Lancers have retained 5 players including 3 Indians- Devinder Walmiki, Lalit Upadhyay and Gurjinder Singh along with retaining 2 foreigners- Andrew Charter and Aran Zalewski.

The Uttar Pradesh Wizards have retained 5 players with the likes of VR Raghunath, Ramandeep Singh and goalkeeper PR Sreejesh while also holding onto Jolie Wouter and Edward Ockenden in the foreigners category.