Pro Kabaddi League (PKL 9) season 9

Last year, the entire tournament was hosted at a bio-bubble in Bengaluru. Before the pandemic took over, the tournament followed a caravan format where the league would entertain the home cities of each of the 12 teams.

It has been clarified that PKL 9 will welcome fans in the stadiums, and the event will not accommodate a bio-bubble this season. Regarding the announcement, Anupam Goswami, CEO of Mashal Sports and the PKL's League commissioner, revealed that their company wanted to popularise kabaddi and familiarise current and upcoming generations of sports fans with the game. 

He believes they have made substantial achievements in that regard, and the PKL season eight, which was conducted comprehensive bio-bubble, is a testament to their success. 

PKL 9 records the biggest auction to date

The announcement was made 20 days after the PKL nine-player auctions wrapped up in Mumbai. 

This year, most franchises rebuilt their teams from scratch. Top players like Pawan Sehrawat, Pardeep Narwal, Siddharth Desai and Fazel Atrachali all went under the hammer. 

Pawan, who is reputed to be one of the most consistent players in PKL's history, was released by the Bengaluru Bulls apart from Iranian defender Fazel.

Pardeep, who attracted the league's highest bid ever in season eight when UP Yoddha bought him for INR 1.65 crores, has been retained by the team. 

Meanwhile, Vikash Kandola was offloaded by Haryana Steelers. Siddharth Desai is making a comeback after sustaining a shoulder injury at the start of last season.

Most memorable moments in the Mumbai auctions

The players in the Player Auction pool are separated into four categories - A, B, C and D. The players in every class have a different base price from which the bidding race takes off.

The base prices for every category look like this -  

Category A - INR 30 Lakhs

Category B - INR 20 Lakhs

Category C - INR 10 Lakhs

Category D - INR 6 Lakhs.

Pawan Kumar Sehrawat became the league's most-expensive player as the Tamil Thalaivas roped him in for a whopping Rs 2.26 crore.

Other top signings include former Haryana Steelers raider Vikash Kandola, who became Bengaluru Bulls' star signing now that Pawan has departed. Vikash was bought for INR 1.70 crores, while Fazel Atrachali was PKL's most-expensive foreign player for the second time. 

Puneri Paltan proposed to sign him for INR 1.38 crores and acquire the Iranian defender. As far as the winners are concerned, Dabang Delhi KC, with their charismatic raider Naveen Kumar at the frontline, are the defending champions.