Pro Kabaddi Auction: New rule to allow teams to continue with past players

The Season 6 auctions of VIVO Pro Kabaddi will take place on 30^th and 31^st of May and teams have already started making their strategies and sizing up their opponents. Some of the teams chose to retain a number of players from their previous squad thanks to the ‘Elite Retained Players’ option. However, Jaipur Pink Panthers, U Mumba and U.P. Yoddha chose to start afresh and make an entirely new team this season.

But now the teams can decide whether they want to retain some of the players they let go to assess whether they fit with the construct of the new squads they develop. This VIVO Pro Kabaddi auction will now see the ‘Final Bid Match’ rule come into effect, which will allow franchises to match the final bid for a player who has played in their franchise in Season 5 and continue their association for the upcoming season.

‘Final Bid Match’ can be used either once or twice by a team depending on the number of Elite Retained Players in their team. The teams which have chosen to retain four players will have the choice to exercise this option once and the teams who have retained fewer than four players will have the choice to exercise the Final Bid Match twice.

At the end of a round of bidding on the player, the relevant franchise will be invited by the auctioneer to match the final bid. They will have to respond with ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ as determined by the auctioneer. If they reply with ‘Yes’ the player will go to the franchise exercising the ‘Final Bid Match’ option at the final bid price set by the team with the highest bid in the open auction. If the reply is ‘No’, then the player shall be allocated to the franchise that has bid the highest according to the auction process.

With the ‘Final Bid Match’ now coming into play, the league has now evolved to allow teams to take more strategic decisions and along with it maintain long-term association with players, keeping in line with global leagues that follow similar practices. The ‘Final Bid Match’ rules goes hand in hand with ‘Elite Retained Players’ route keeping the decisions and tactics intertwined and offering layers to the stories that unfold as a result.

This will make the auction all the more exciting and will make the competition all the more cut throat, as teams will have to factor the new rule into their auction strategy.