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Hockey India League auction live, Day 1: Harmanpreet Singh bought by Soorma for record 78 lakh

Harmanpreet Singh Michael Reaves/Getty Images

The Hockey India League auction will commence in New Delhi this afternoon, with the eight men's teams beginning to pick their squads for the tournament, which will start in late December.

You can follow the auction as it happens in our live blog below:

The auction will happen over three days, with the men's auction taking place on Sunday and Monday, followed by the women's auction on Tuesday. The proceedings begin at 2:30pm on Sunday, while they will begin at 10am on both Monday and Tuesday.

The big players going under the hammer on day 1 will include India captain Harmanpreet Singh, and other star Indian players like Hardik Singh, Manpreet Singh, Mandeep Singh, and notable foreigners like Australians Blake Govers and Jeremy Hayward.

The players have registered for the auction under three base price categories - Rs 2 lakh, Rs 5 lakh, and Rs 10 lakh. A total of 166 men have reigstered themselves with the highest possible base price of Rs 10 lakh, including 114 overseas players.

The purse available to each of the men's teams is Rs 4 crore and for each of the women's teams, it is Rs 2 crore.

The total list of players registered for the auction includes 400 domestic men's players, over 150 overseas men's players, over 250 domestic women's players and over 70 overseas women's players.