Sibin Girish was the most expensive player in the KCL auction.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Alleppey Ripples made the biggest splash in the player auction for the third season of the Kerala Cricket League (KCL) here on Saturday.
Ripples stirred up an absolute tidal wave in the auction when it bought all-rounder Sibin Girish for ₹11.8 lakh, making him the most expensive player of the season.
Sibin, who had a base price of ₹75,000, attracted bids from Calicut Globstars, Thrissur Titans and Kochi Blue Tigers.
Globstars withdrew from the race when the price crossed ₹7 lakh and Titans exited at ₹10.4 lakh. Ripples then outbid Blue Tigers to pocket the all-rounder. Sibin is also the most expensive player to be bought in Category C in the history of KCL.
Ripples’ first buy was Kerala captain Sachin Baby for whom it splurged ₹10 lakh after warding off bids from Titans. Ripples also spent ₹six lakh for Kerala under-23 captain and all-rounder Abhijith Praveen.
Mohammed Azharuddeen, Ripples captain and one of the retained players, said the team was keen to sign Sibin after seeing his consistent performances in various tournaments. “We had a clear cut plan for the auction and had fixed our budgets for each player we wanted and it went as planned. We had Sibin on our radar following his good all-round performances in various tournaments, He bowls medium pace and is a good finisher and he will bring a lot of balance to our squad. We also wanted an experienced player like Sachin Baby who will be an asset for us,” said Azharuddeen, For the record, Sachin was the most expensive player in Category A.
Krishna Devan was bought by Globstars for ₹11.2 lakh.
Another Category C player, Krishna Devan was the second-most expensive player in the auction with Globstars spending ₹11.2 lakh to buy him, outbidding Blue Tigers.
Category A players Abdul Basith, Vishnu Vinod, M.D. Nidheesh and Basil Thampi attracted multiple bids from franchises in the first round.
Globstars shelled out ₹8 lakh from its budget for all-rounder Basith.
Trivandrum Royals signed the swashbuckling Vishnu for ₹7.8 lakh after outbidding Ripples. Vishnu was Royals’ most expensive buy in the auction. Aries Kollam pocketed Nidheesh for ₹6.6 lakh while Blue Tigers bought Basil Thampi for ₹5.4 lakh.
Vignesh Puthur, who was the find of the first season of KCL, surprisingly didn’t attract any buyers in the first two rounds. He was finally picked by Calicut Globstars for ₹1.5 lakh in the accelerated round, which was half of his base price of ₹3 lakh.
All-rounder M. Nikhil was the most expensive player in Category B (base price ₹1.5 lakh) as Royals used the Right to Match card to buy him for ₹6.2 lakh from Titans. Royals also doled out ₹4.8 lakh for all-rounder Akshay Manohar, making him the second-most expensive player in Category B. In all, 89 players were sold from a list of 137.
Published – July 11, 2026 08:56 pm IST
