Mumbai, 25 April (Hindustan). The time for the inaugural edition of the Premier Handball League is just around the corner. With this league, India will witness the thrill of handball for the first time. The first exciting chapter in this series came to an end on Sunday, when the player auction for the league came to an end. A total of 116 players including foreigners, international players for India and domestic handball talents have been selected by six franchise teams – Delhi Panzers, Proud Gujarat, Golden Eagles Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra Ironmen, Rajasthan Team (yet to be named) and Telugu Talons Had to go
The auction started with overseas players. International players represented the Asian Handball Federation along with other federations. All 18 international players included in the auction were selected by the teams. Each team was allowed to choose only one foreign right-back, left-back and goalkeeper respectively.
As the biggest foreign player, Telugu Talons signed Andrei Igorevich Ndbelo (goalkeeper) from Russia, who is a six-time Russian champion. Similarly, proud Gujarat picked Tulibov Mukhtar (right back) from Uzbekistan. The 24-year-old Tulibov is best known for his exploits for the Uzbek team at the Intermania World Cup. The Uzbek team won the gold medal at Intermania. Golden Eagles Uttar Pradesh were also determined not to be left behind and that’s why they added Omid Reza (goal keeper) of Iran. Omid has represented his country in the IHF Handball World Cup in the last two World Cup editions.
On the other hand, Maharashtra Ironmen secured the services of Iran’s right back Jalal Kayani. Kiyani has been a silver medalist with the national team at the Asian Games. Similarly, Delhi Panzers bought 20-year-old Artem Martynov (right back) from Russia, who is part of the gold medal-winning team of the 2019 Russian Handball Championships. Finally, the Rajasthan team (which is yet to be named) decided to sign Iraqi left-back Baderaladdin Nassar.
The second category was of Indian star players. From this category, 42 players were to be selected by the franchise teams. Under this category, each team was allowed to select only one player for each of the seven positions. These positions are right back, left back, center back, right wing, left wing and pivot. Among the top Indian players, Telugu Talons roped in four-time national champion Raghu Kumara (Pivot) while proud Gujarat roped in three-time national champion and two-time Federation Cup gold medalist Harendra Singh Nain as their star Indian player. Chose (right back).
Similarly Golden Eagles Uttar Pradesh picked Bhushan Shinde (right wing) as their Most Valuable Indian Player for the league. Maharashtra Ironmen roped in winger Ankit Kumar who was a member of the gold medal winning Indian squads for the IHF Trophy in 2016 and 2018 and was the most valuable player of the silver medal winning team at the 2019 South Asian Games. Delhi Panzers picked three-time national champion Mintu Sardar as the pivot and finally, the Rajasthan team picked Robin Singh (left back), a four-time national champion, as their most valuable Indian star player. chose.
The last category of the day was called Role Players. It included 56 domestic Indian players. 42 out of 56 were selected in the auction. Telugu Talons’ most valuable player in this category was Rahul Nain (Dhuri). Garvit Gujarat went with right back Surender Kumar and Golden Eagles brought in Sanchit Gupta (right wing) and Mohit Punia (right back) from Maharashtra Ironmen. Delhi Panzers decided to go with youth and picked 20-year-old pivot Deepak while Rajasthan picked Mohit Ghanghas (left back) as their biggest player in the role players category.
Commenting on the auction, Manu Agarwal, Founder & CEO, Bluesport Entertainment Pvt Ltd said, “It was a great experience. We have been working on strengthening the structure of the Premier Handball League for some time. A successful auction process has brought us one step closer to the D-day. I would like to thank all the franchise owners, South Asian Handball Federation and Handball Association India for making the auction a huge success. Being the first edition, the franchises did a lot of research to include the best 17 in their squad. This makes the inaugural season even more exciting as there will be a lot of unknown players playing alongside him when he takes the field.”
The Premier Handball League (PHL) is sanctioned by the South Asian Handball Federation and affiliated with the Asian Handball Federation (AHF). The inaugural season of the Premier Handball League will begin on June 8 and run till June 25, 2023.
