At Rs 1.45 cr Siddharth Desai is costliest buy of Pro Kabaddi League 7

Siddharth Desai

It's only his second Pro Kabaddi League season, but Maharashtra raider Siddharth Desai received a massive boost as Telugu Titans (Titans) bought him for Rs 1.45 crore at the VIVO Pro Kabaddi Season VII player auction in Mumbai yesterday.

Though U Mumba, for whom Desai played 21 games last season in which he earned 218 vital raid points, chose not to retain him, two South Indian teams - Titans and Tamil Thalaivas - fought to get Desai in their squad.

When bids for the domestic 'A' category raider began, Titans owner Shrinivas Sreeramaneni started with Rs 1 crore for Desai, who had a base price of Rs 30 lakh. Thalaivas responded with a Rs 1.20 crore bid. Later, there were around 15 rounds of bidding among the same teams and Titans succeeded in getting their favourite raider for Rs 1.45 crore. "I was shocked when Telugu Titans straightway started bidding Rs 1 crore for me. I was watching the player auction on television with my elder brother Suraj [also a kabaddi player] and friends in Mumbai. When I heard the first bid for me, I was so delighted that I started dancing with them. I was expecting around Rs 70 to 80 lakh," Desai told mid-day after the auction yesterday.

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Desai, who was brought up at Hundalewadi village in Chandgad Taluka of Kolhapur district, now wants to do something for upcoming kabaddi players in his region. "I know how difficult it is to become a good kabaddi player and I had to work hard. Lack of funds made it quite tough for me to maintain a daily diet plan, fitness routine and practice. Now that I have some money, I want to do something for kabaddi players in my village [Hundalewadi] and taluka [Chandgad in Kolhapur district]," said
Desai, 27.

However, Desai realises that with the huge price tag comes additional responsibility. "I know that, but I assure my team owner [Shrinivas Sreeramaneni] my 100 per cent," he said.

Though Desai emerged the costliest player during yesterday's auction, Monu Goyat, who was picked up for a mammoth Rs 1.51 crore by Haryana Steelers last year, had to be satisfied with Rs 93 lakh, spent by UP Yodha.

Rahul Chaudhary too got only R94 lakh from Tamil Thalaivas as compared to Telegu Titans' best price of Rs 1.29 crore for him. But Puneri Paltan's raider Nitin Tomar was lucky to earn Rs 5 lakh more than his last year's price as the Pune team retained him for Rs 1.20 crore.

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