Nair, Rahul in spotlight ahead of KPL auctions

Each franchise has to bid for a minimum of two Pool A players and will be allowed no more than five of them. The surplus budget from Pool A auction can be carried forward to the Pool B auction.

Currently part of the India 'A' squad, Karun Nair will be among the prominent names in the KPL auction pool.

With ₹30 lakh in its coffers, the sixth edition of the Karnataka Premier League is eyeing the big guns at the player auction to be held here on Sunday; 215 cricketers are set to go under the hammer.

The likes of K.L Rahul and Manish Pandey would be on top of the list for most franchises, after the raise of purse from ₹20 lakh last season. But with national commitments in Sri Lanka, and at home against Australia in September, it remains to be seen how the franchises go about their bids. The other prominent names in the auction pool include Karun Nair and R. Samarth, currently part of the India 'A' squad in South Africa.

IPL star Robin Uthappa won’t be a part of the tournament. He had obtained an NOC from the KSCA for plying his trade away from Karnataka.

Pool A comprises 35 top-drawer players including Rahul, Pandey, Nair, Samarth, K. Gowtham, C.M. Gautam and Mayank Agarwal. The remaining 180 KSCA-registered players will make up Pool B. From the wallet, ₹18 lakh will be reserved for Pool A, and the remaining for Pool B players.

Each franchise has to bid for a minimum of two Pool A players and will be allowed no more than five of them. The surplus budget from Pool A auction can be carried forward to the Pool B auction. The minimum bid for a Pool A player will be ₹50,000 while that for a Pool B player ₹20,000.

Each team should comprise a minimum of 15 and a maximum of 18 players. All teams will also have to mandatorily pick a minimum of two players from their respective catchment areas after the auction, with a purse of ₹20,000 allotted over and above the ₹30 lakh purse.

The league is expected to start on September 1.

Pool A players: Abhishek Reddy, Abrar Kazi, Akhil Balachandra, Amit Verma, Anirudh Joshi, S. Aravind, K.C. Cariappa, David Mathias, C.M. Gautam, K. Gowtham, Karun Nair, Kunal Kapoor, Manish Pandey, Mayank Agarwal, Mir Kaunain Abbas, Abhimanyu Mithun, Mitrakanth Yadav, Mohammed Taha, Pavan Deshpande, K.B. Pawan, T. Pradeep, Prasid M.Krishna, Prateek Jain, Praveen Dubey, K.L. Rahul, Ronit More, R. Samarth, H.S. Sharath, Shishir Bhavane, Shreyas Gopal, Stuart Binny, J. Suchith, Suneel Raju, Vinay Kumar, V. Vyshak.