Spotlight on Sanju Samson in KCL auction

The spotlight will be on Sanju Samson in the player auction for the second season of Kerala Cricket League (KCL), which will be held here on Saturday.

Samson, who missed the first season of KCL, is among the 156 players who will go under the hammer. With an enhanced budget, the six franchises will go all out to pocket the prized catch. Samson is expected to break the league record of expensive buy, which was ₹7.4 lakh that Trivandrum Royals doled out for M.S. Akhil last season .

Kerala’s under-19 captain Ahmed Imran, under-19 international Mohammed Enaan, Jaivin Jackson, Jobin Jobi, Aditya Baiju, Manav Krishna, Advait Prince and Vidhun Venugopal are some of the exciting youngsters in the auction list.

However, the franchises are likely to face a tricky situation as they have to buy a minimum of four players from Pool-A, which consists of top-drawer players.

The players from Pool A command a base price of ₹3 lakh, and 31 players are enlisted in this category. Pool B has 48 players with a base price of ₹1.5 lakh. The C category has 77 players with a base price of ₹ 75,000.

A franchise has to buy a minimum of 16 players and a maximum of 20 players with the available budget. The six franchises have retained a total of 14 players. Among the players on the auction list, 42-year-old K.J. Rakesh is the oldest, while 16-year-old Jaivin is the youngest. Noted commentator Charu Sharma is the auctioneer.

The available budget with the franchises is as follows: Kochi Blue Tigers (₹50 lakh); Thrissur Titans (₹50 lakh); Trivandrum Royals (₹45.5 lakh); Aires Kollam Sailors (₹34.5 lakh); Alleppey Ripples (₹32.5 lakh) and Calicut Globstars (₹33.75 lakh).