The Pro Kabaddi League auction tends to generate a ton of buzz, with there being a lot of intrigue surrounding who might end up being the most expensive buys. Fans are thrilled when their team lands that megastar at a high price, but does going big lead to success for a team? Well, when you start digging a bit, you’ll find out that it certainly does not.

If we start looking from all the way back in Season 4, the team that made the most expensive buy at the auction has never won the title that season. In fact, there have only been two instances of a team that had one of the four most expensive buys at the auction going on to win the PKL title that season.

The very first instance actually comes in Season 4 itself. The Patna Pirates would emerge victorious and Fazel Atrachali was the fourth-most expensive player in the auction at ₹ 38 lakhs. They beat the Jaipur Pink Panthers in the final, who did not have one of the four most expensive buys that year.

From here on out, we have to wait for quite some time for one of the teams to have even made it to the final. Season 5 saw the Pirates win again, this time against Gujarat Fortune Giants in the finale and neither team made one of the four most expensive buys in the auction that year.

Season 6 saw the Fortune Giants get to the final again, but they would lose again, as Bengaluru Bulls became champions for the first time. As was the case last season, neither finalist had landed one of the four most expensive players at the auction. Interestingly, none of the four teams that did, managed to make the playoffs that season.

In Season 7, it was Bengal Warriors who emerged victorious by beating Dabang Delhi in the final and you guessed it, neither made one of the four most expensive buys in the auction that year. Of the four teams that did, the Yoddhas were the only ones who made the playoffs, and they were knocked out in the Eliminator.

The Yoddhas were once again the only team that had one of the four most expensive buys at the Season 8 auction to make the playoffs. They lost in the semifinals, though, which meant once again, none of the four teams made the final. As for who made it, Delhi got over the line this time around, beating the Pirates to win their first title.

Things started to change in Season 9, with three of the four most expensive buys seeing their teams make the playoffs, although Pawan Sehrawat missed most of the campaign for the Thalaivas. We finally saw a team go big on a player and make the final, as the Paltan made it all the way there. They lost to the Pink Panthers, however.

Season 10 at last saw a team go big in the auction and win. The Paltan made Mohammadreza Chiyaneh the most expensive overseas player in PKL history and he thanked them by helping them win their first-ever title.

The Paltans’ triumph aside, we haven’t really seen a team make that big investment in one player in the auction and be rewarded for it in a fairly long time. It instead often leads to teams just not having enough left in the kitty in a salary-capped league to build a talented roster, which is what you need to win a championship.

Featured Image Credit: ESPN/PKL