Karnataka Premier League: All eyes on Robin Uthappa in Saturday's auction

BENGALURU: Franchises will set store by depth in their teams than star power in the Karnataka Premier League auction at the Chinnaswamy stadium on Saturday.
With a busy domestic and international schedule clashing with the league, the cream of Karnataka cricket will ply their wares elsewhere. The absence of many of the star players, if anything, will give fresh talent an opportunity to come to the fore on Saturday.
With most of the known players and last year's performers retained by the franchises a lot of permutation and combinations will have to be factored in while picking the players for KPL's seventh edition.
Among the seven franchises, Bellary Tuskers will go into auction with the biggest purse with Rs 25 lakh having spent a mere Rs 5 lakh on retaining four players including senior team wicketkeeper CM Gautam and rising star Devdutt Padikkal.
In contrast, Hubli Tigers who chose not to release their skipper R Vinay Kumar, Abhishek Reddy, Praveen Dubey and Abhishek Sakhuja have to be cautious with Rs 17,90,000 left in their bag.
Among the players who are expected to miss the League are Mayank Agarwal, R Samarth, K Gowtham, Shreyas Gopal and Prasidh Krishna. But Robin Uthappa, who made a last-minute entry, is expected to garner a lot of attention. Given his availability and reputation of a big hitter most teams are expected to loosen their purses for him.
With most teams retaining a majority of their specialist batsmen and bowlers, the all-rounders may well be the flavour of the auction with the likes of David Mathias, Aditya Somanna, Bhavesh Gulecha, Manoj Bandege, Kranti Kumar, Prithviraj Shikawat and Shoaib Manager among the frontrunners.
Total players registered: 258
Players retained: 28
Pool 'A' players retained: 15
Pool 'B' players retained: 13
Money matters
Total purse per team: 30 lakh
Minimum bid
Pool 'A' player: 50,000
Pool 'B' player: 25,000.
Maximum purse:
Pool 'A': 18 lakh
Pool 'B: 12 Lakh
Available purse per team after retainers (in lakh)
Belagavi Panthers: 22.6
Ballari Tuskers: 25
Bijapur Bulls 20.8
Hubli Tigers: 17.9
Bengaluru Blasters: 18.8
Mysuru Warriors: 21.5
Shivamogga Lions: 21
Pool 'A' players in auction pool: Amit Verma, K Gowtham, Robin Uthappa, Mayank Agarwal, Mir K Abbas, Abhimanyu Mithun, Mohd Taha, Pradeep T, Prasidh Krishna, Prateek Jain, R Samarth, HS Sharath, Shishir Bhavane, Shreyas Gopal, Dikshanshu Negi, Naga Bharath, BR Sharath, Ritesh Bhatkal, KV Siddarth, CA Karthik.
In Pool B watchout for: Kishore Kamat, Shubhang Hegde, Abrar Kazi, KP Appanna, Aditya Somanna, Bhavesh Gulecha, David Mathias, Kranti Kumar, Shoaib Manager.