(Rptg,correcting timeline) New Delhi, May 23 (UNI) Raider Nitin Tomar became the highest paid player in the history of Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) auctions after being brought by Team Uttar Pradesh for a whopping 93 Lakh. The 22-year-old has now become the highest paid player in the history of the game and surpassed Rohit Kumar (81 lakh), Manjeet Chillar (75.50 lakh) Selvamani K (73 lakhs) and Surjeet Singh (73 lakhs). The auctions held here last night saw a bidding war between UP and Telugu Titans for Tomar, who was a member of the World Cup winning Indian team last year in Ahmedabad, however, it was UP who finally went away with the raider. Earlier, Manjeet Chillar had became the most expensive buy in auctions last night after being bought by Abhishek Bachchan-owned Jaipur Pink Panthers for Rs 75.5 lakh, from his base price of Rupees 20 lakh INR.
Four new teams have been inducted in the cash-rich league for the upcoming fifth season while the auction is underway here. After Manjeet, another all-rounder Rajesh Narwal was sold to UP for Rs 69 lakh. Before them, Delhi and Haryana tried their best to buy all-rounder Sandeep Narwal however, it was Puneri Paltan in the end to walk away with the all-rounder for Rs 66 lakh. Apart from them, Kuldeep Singh was sold for Rs 51.5 lakh to U-Mumba, Ran Singh went to Bengaluru Warriors for Rs 47.5 lakh and Rakesh Kumar was sold to Telugu Titans for Rs 45 lakh. In foreign players, Iranian defender Abozar Mohajermighani became the highest-paid foreigner in the season 5 auctions after he was sold to Team Gujarat for a record Rs 50. Each franchise enjoys a purse of Rs 4 crore each and have been allowed to buy 18-25 players to form a team, which will consist of 2 to 4 foreign players while seven of the former eight franchise had retained one player each. UNI KU PY 1511