T20 Mumbai League: Arjun Tendulkar picked for Rs 5 lakh

MUMBAI: Arjun Tendulkar, son of cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar, was on Saturday picked for Rs 5 lakh by the Aakash Tigers Mumbai Western Suburb for the second season of the T20 Mumbai League after an intense bidding.

At the auction, Arjun, a budding left-arm pacer and a batsman, who had played unofficial Tests for India-U19, was among the few players in focus.

Arjun was included in the all-rounder category with a base price of Rs 1 lakh.

Several teams bidded for him but the highest bid was raised to Rs 5 lakh by North Mumbai Panthers, which is the maximum bid amount, after which Charu Sharma, who was conducting the auction, gave the two new teams -- Aakash Tigers Mumbai Western Suburb and Eagle Thane Strikers -- an option to exercise the OTM (Opportunity to Match).

Both the new teams opted to exercise the OTM at Rs 5 lakh after which two cards were placed in a bag and Mumbai Cricket Association ad hoc committee member Unmesh Khanvilkar picked up a card which was of Aakash Tigers and that is how they got Jr Tendulkar.

Before the auction, players like Suryakumar Yadav, Akash Parkar (Triumph Knights Mumbai North East), Shivam Dube, Siddhesh Lad (Shivaji Park Lions), Prithvi Shaw (North Mumbai Panthers), Jay Bista and Dhurmil Matkar (SoBo Supersonics), Shubham Ranjane, Tushar Deshpande (Arcs Andheri), Shreyas Iyer, Eknath Kerkar (Namo Bandra Blasters) were retained by the six franchises.

Aditya Tare, Sarfaraz Khan (Eagle Thane Strikers), Dhawal Kulkarni and Shams Mulani (Aakash Tigers Mumbai Western Suburbs) were chosen by the two new franchises in the eight-team affair.

Before the auction, it was announced that seven U-19 players including batsman Yashasvi Jaiswal were not available for the league, which begins on May 14 at the Wankhede stadium.

Meanwhile, Sujit Naik also fetched Rs 5 Lakh bid.

Sachin Tendulkar is the brand ambassador of the League.