India Internationals draw strong attention

MUMBAI: The inaugural edition of the Premier Handball League draws closer with the conclusion of its auction process.

A total of 116 players including internationals, India internationals and domestic handball talent were up for selection by six franchises — Delhi Panzers, Garvit Gujarat, Golden Eagles Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra Ironmen, Rajasthan team (yet to be named) and Telugu Talons.

The auctions started with the category of foreign players and all 18 international players were picked up by the teams — each team was allowed to select only one foreign right-back, left-back and goalkeeper.

In terms of the biggest foreign imports, Telugu Talons went for the services of Andrei Igorevich Nedbailo (goalkeeper) from Russia — a six-time Russian champion. Garvit Gujarat picked up Tuliboev Mukhtor (right-back) from Uzbekistan. The 24-year-old is known for his exploits with the Uzbek team at the Interamnia World Cup wherein they clinched gold.

Golden Eagles Uttar Pradesh also made sure they did not fall short and went all out to secure the services of Iran’s Omid Reza (goalkeeper), who 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 Kiani. Kiani is a silver medallist with the national team at the Asian Games. Delhi Panzers went for the 20-year-old Artem Martynov (right-back) from Russia, a 2019 Russian Handball Championship gold medallist. Lastly, it was the Rajasthan team (yet to be named) who selected the services of Iraq’s left-back Baderaladeen Naser.

The second category was reserved for Indian star players and 42 players were up for selection by the franchises.

Under this category, each team was allowed to pick only one player for each of the seven positions — right-back, left-back, centre-back, right-wing, left-wing and pivot.

Amongst the top Indian buys, Telugu Talons went for Raghu Kumara (pivot), a four-time national champion, Garvit Gujarat secured Harender Singh Nain (right-back) as their star Indian player, a three-time national champion and a two-time gold medallist at the Federation Cup Tournaments, and Golden Eagles Uttar Pradesh selected Bhushan Shinde (right-wing) as their most valuable Indian asset for the league.

For Maharashtra Ironmen, winger Ankit Kumar — a member of gold medal winning Indian squads for the IHF Trophy in 2016 and 2018 and a silver medallist at the 2019 South Asian Games — was the most valuable player.

Delhi Panzers went for pivot Mintu Sardar, again a three-time national champion, and lastly, it was Rajasthan who selected Robin Singh (left-back), a four-time national champion, as their most valuable Indian star player.

The final category was called role players and 56 domestic Indian players were a part of it. As many as 42 out of the 56 were picked.

Telugu Talons’ most valuable in this category was Rahul Nain (pivot), Garvit Gujarat went with right-back Surender Kumar, and Golden Eagles selected Sanchit Gupta (right-wing) and Mohit Punia (right-back) joined Maharashtra Ironmen.

Delhi Panzers went with youth and picked up the 20-year-old pivot Deepak and Rajasthan secured Mohit Ghanghas (left-back) as their biggest player in the role players category.

Speaking about the auction process, Manu Agrawal, Founder and CEO of Bluesport Entertainment Private Limited, said, “It was an exhilarating experience. We have been working on solidifying the structure of the Premier Handball League for a while. A successful auction process has taken us a step closer to D-Day. I would like to thank all the franchise owners, the South Asian Handball Federation and Handball Association India for making the auctions a huge success.

“Being the first edition, it took a lot of research by the franchises to select the best 17 for their team but this also makes the inaugural season even more exciting as a lot of unknown elements will be at play when they finally get onto the field.”