JPL bidders at the auction on Sunday. Telegraph picture

Ranchi, Feb. 14: Fledgling cricketer Tejaswi Yadav, son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, was netted by Jamshedpur Janbaaz for Rs 60,000 in the maiden edition of JPL (Jharkhand Premier League) auction.

Tejaswi was put on the block thrice before he was finally claimed by Jamshedpur Janbaaz .

Saurabh Tiwary claimed Rs 5.59 lakh at JPL auctions yesterday.

Peanuts compared to the southpaw’s IPL price of a cool $1.60 million for Royal Challengers, Bangalore, but still the highest amount paid for any cricketer in the maiden edition of JPL (Jharkhand Premier League) auction.

It was a low-key do, without India Inc. honchos or Bollywood sparklers. The Mukesh Ambanis, Vijay Mallyas, Shilpa Shettys or Preity Zintas were nowhere.

But Gunwant Singh Saluja and Ajay Bagaria, co-owners of Bokaro Bulls, which scooped up the ace cricketer at yesterday’s auction at Ranchi, were ecstatic. “It is a dream come true,” they said.

Within breathing distance was right arm leg break bowler Ishank Jaggi, who was claimed by Ranchi Ranjers for Rs 5.32 lakh.

“Naturally Saurabh Tiwary will be the captain of our team. We went slow initially, as we were waiting for the big catch, which we knew would come up only at the final round. And we did it. With Saurabh on our side, ours is a balanced team now ,” both Saluja and Bagaria enthused.

Both the co-owners hail from the mica-rich district of Giridih. “Since there were no slots for our district, we claimed it from Bokaro,” the duo said.

Those crossing the six-digit mark, in addition to Saurabh Tiwary and Ishank Jaggi, were Mihir Diwakar (Rs 5.36 lakh) for Singhbhum Sher, Subrato Ghosh (Rs 1.80 lakh) for Ranchi Rangers, S.P. Gautam (Rs 1.40 lakh) for Dhanbad Diamonds, Manoj Kumar Singh (Rs.1.30 lakh) for Jamshedpur Janbaaz, Gurjit Singh Dhoni (Rs 1.05 lakh) for Dhanbad Diamonds, Kuldip Sharma (Rs 1.05 lakh) for Singhbhum Sher and Akash Verma (Rs 1.25 lakh) and Rahul Shukla (Rs 1 lakh), both for Bokaro Bulls.

“The matches will start at Jharkhand State Cricket Association’s international cricket stadium at Ranchi. The tourney is between March 12 to 19. All the matches will be floodlit and broadcast live on Ten Sports,” Nishant Dayal of Elite Sports Management, the organiser of the tournament, said.

Admitting that JPL was “nothing” compared to its glitzy national counterpart, Sayal said: “The prices fetched by the players were upto our expectations.”