Cuttack/Bhubaneswar, May 13: Cricket, glamour and big bucks made for a heady cocktail as the players’ auction for the first Orissa Premier League saw the franchise owners bidding fervently for more than 300 players today.

Out of the total 50 players categorised under grade A (Ranji players), 31 players were picked up by 10 franchises while 19 remained unsold at the eight-hour long glitzy event held at Orissa Cricket Association (OCA) conference hall in Cuttack. The base price of these cricketers had been fixed at Rs 60,000 by the OCA.

Leaving behind stars such as Debasish Mohanty and Shiv Sunder Das, promising all rounder Biplap Samantray took everyone by surprise by emerging as the most expensive player. The twin cities of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar competed neck-and-neck for 22-year-old Biplab, with Katak Barabati Tigers (Cuttack) finally buying their local boy for a whopping Rs 4.60lakh.

The next costliest player, Paresh Patel, went to Bhubaneswar for Rs 3.90lakh. For Patel too, there was a close contest between franchise owners JSP Sparks (Jagatsinghpur) and Bhubaneswar Jaguars (Bhubaneswar). Natraj Behera was bought for Rs 2.90lakh by the Rourkela team, Western Samurais.

Similarly, Rakesh Mohanty, Niranjan Behera, Bibhudutt Panda were sold for a price of Rs 2.20lakh each to Puri Emperors, Berhampur Bhanja Veers, Katak Barabati Tigers, respectively. Shiv Sunder Das and Debasish Mohanty were sold for Rs1.80lakh and Rs 1.65lakh to Cooperative Kings, Dhenkanal, and Angul Tuskers, respectively.

Similarly, in grade B (under 22) only nine players were picked by various franchises and six remained unsold. Aravind Singh (Cooperative Kings, Dhenkanal) was the costliest player in this category and was sold for Rs 1.21lakh followed by Sayeed Zaki (Kashivi Power Rangers, Keonjhar) for Rs 1.3lakh.

In grade C, there were a total of 74 cricketers, which included 40 ex-Ranji players and 34 from under-19 category. Nine from each category were sold with Suryakant Pradhan (Puri Emperors, Puri) emerging as the costliest player at Rs 1.18lakh.

Aditya Basha went to Katak Barabati Tigers for Rs 1.04lakh and Seshdev Patra was bought by Angul Tuskers for Rs 1.02lakh. Grade C player BBCC Mohapatra, an ex-Ranji cricketer, was sold for the highest price of Rs 90,000 to Kashvi Power Rangers, Keonjhar.

In grade D (under-16), just six players out of a total 41 were sold with Ashok Barik at Rs 90,000 as the most expensive player in this group. The group E players (from catchment areas) would be bought as per negotiations with franchise owners.

“All the franchises have agreed to buy the unsold players by directly negotiating with them but they cannot exceed the base price limit for the team which is Rs 8lakh,” said OCA secretary, Ashirbad Behera.

The team owners have been asked to submit their players’ list by May 15.

“As soon as they submit the list, we can work on the entire fixture from May 16,” he added.

Ollywood actress Archita and model Pinky Pradhan were the centre of attraction and the celebrities were seen bidding for players for JSP Sparks and Cooperative Kings, Dhenkanal, respectively.