Mohammad Adil Alam, who is returning to the cricketing world after over two years, stole the spotlight at the auction for the second season of the much-anticipated Nepal Premier League on Saturday.

Alam, a Category A player, was the only one out of 164 cricketers in the auction list who garnered the attention of all eight franchises.

Earlier, 150 players—eight in Category A, 35 in Category B, and 107 in Category C—were shortlisted for the auction. However, on the day of the auction, 14 players were added—one in Category A, two in Category B, and 11 in Category C.

When a player reached his maximum price, a lucky draw was conducted among the interested teams. In Saturday’s auction, all the players who got sold for their maximum price went to a team only after a lucky draw.

And when the maximum price for a Category A player—Rs1.5 million—was reached in the case of Alam, with all the teams interested in him, it went to the lucky draw. And it was Kathmandu Gorkhas who got the luck.

Alam, also known as Aadil Ansari, played his last cricket game on January 6, 2023, for Janakpur Royals in the Nepal T20 League. He made his debut for the national team in T20Is on March 31, 2022, and in ODIs on June 11 of the same year.

An all-rounder, Alam played in six ODIs and eight T20Is in Nepal’s jersey until July 16, 2022, and August 30, 2022, respectively. However, on January 23, 2023, Alam was arrested by the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police on charges of spot fixing at the Nepal T20 League.

It was only on March 25 last year that Alam was acquitted of the charges by the Kathmandu District Court. Since then, Nepali fans have been awaiting his return to the ground. And his demand was visible when all eight NPL teams bid for him at the NPL Season 2 auction.

Durga Nath Subedi aka Devendra, the auctioneer, who is also an ICC umpire and the former president of Nepal Sports Journalists Forum (NSJF), made Alam’s lucky draw more interesting by taking his time to reveal the lucky team. And when he showed the dice engraved with Kathmandu Gorkhas, the team’s table erupted in joy.

Alam was the Gorkhas’ final player in the auction. He joined the team as the fifth player and was the only one from Category A in the squad. Before Alam, the franchise had bagged two players each from the B and C categories.

Category B’s Santosh Yadav and Aakash Tripathi joined the Gorkhas for Rs1 million and Rs700,000, respectively, while Uttam Thapa Magar and Tul Bahadur Thapa, from Category C, were bought for Rs300,000 and Rs200,000, respectively.

Nonetheless, Gorkhas, who spent Rs3.7 million in the auction, had their time of sadness when other teams rejoiced for being the lucky ones in the case of other players.

Chitwan Rhinos were the team to spend the highest amount of money in the auction—Rs3.9 million. The Rhinos bought two Category A players—Dev Khanal and Arjun Saud—for the maximum price, Category B’s Bipin Rawal for the base price of Rs500,000, and two Category C players—Bipin Acharya and Ranjit Kumar—for the base price of Rs200,000.

Likewise, Lumbini Lions spent Rs3.2 million for five players, of which three—Dilip Nath, Shre Malla and Durgesh Gupta—were from Category B, and two—Bishal Patel and Adil Khan—from Category C. Nath and Malla cost the maximum price while Gupta came in for the base price. Patel had to be bought for Rs500,000 and Khan for Rs200,000.

Inaugural season’s runner-up, Sudurpaschim Royals, and Biratnagar Kings were the only other teams to have bought five players each.

The Royals spent Rs2.4 million for three players—Hemant Dhami, Deepak Bohara and Milan Bohara— of Category B and two—Tek Bahadur Rawat and Dipendra Thapa—of Category C.

Pacer Dhami was bought for Rs1 million while the Bohara-duo, Rawat and Thapa came for their respective base prices.

Spending Rs2.7 million, Kings, representing the easternmost region of Nepal, got all five players for the base price. Surya Tamang of Category A, Sahil Patel, Narayan Joshi and Sankhar Rana of Category B, and Shrawan Kisku of Category C were their picks.

The defending champions, Janakpur Bolts, alongside Karnali Yaks and Pokhara Avengers, picked only four players each from the auction.

The Bolts added Mayan Yadav and Bikash Agri from Category B, and Sachin Bhatta and Aditya Mahata from Category C to the squad by spending Rs1.975 million in total. Yadav’s bid went up to Rs775,000 while Agri came for the base price. Bhatta was also bought for his base price of Rs200,000, but Mahata’s bid went up to the maximum.

The Yaks got only four players but spent Rs2.9 million. They were lucky in the case of Category A’s Pawan Sarraf and Category B’s Yubraj Khatri. Meanwhile, they got Category C’s Imran Sheikh and Deepak Dumre for the base price.

Regarding the Avengers, they still had Rs2.550 million remaining in their purse as they only spent Rs1.1 million for four players, of which three—Abhisekh Tiwari, Krishna Paudel and Sandeep Khatri Chhetri—were from Category C. Arjun Kumal was the player from Category B.

Moreover, the Avengers got all the players for the base price.

The franchises will now be focused on buying foreign players. Each of them can buy upto six foreigners, but can only field four in a match.

The second season of the NPL is expected to take place in November-December. By that time, the Cricket Association of Nepal expects the TU International Cricket Stadium in Kirtipur to be equipped with the stands and to organise Nepal’s first-ever game under the floodlights.