If you've searched around for this topic, you've probably noticed a mismatch: several sites report the NPL 2026 auction as an August 9 event with 150 shortlisted players and a top bid of NPR 15 lakh. That figure set matches the Season 2 (2025) auction, not Season 3. The confirmed Season 3 auction — reported live and covered the next morning by Kathmandu-based news outlets — took place on July 6, 2026, involved a 155-player shortlist (not 150), and produced a top sale of NPR 20 lakh for Aasif Sheikh, not 15 lakh. That 15 lakh figure was the Category A ceiling for standard players; Sheikh sold above it because he entered the pool under a special marquee-release price band (10 lakh base, 20 lakh ceiling) rather than the normal Category A range. If a page you're reading cites August 9 or a 15 lakh top price for Season 3, it's almost certainly recycled from last year's auction. This article uses only the July 6, 2026 figures, cross-checked across two independently reported sources.

Before any bidding started, each of the eight franchises could retain up to seven players from its Season 2 roster, with one of those seven designated as the team's marquee player. Retentions were announced on a rolling basis through June, starting with Janakpur Bolts on June 11 and wrapping up over the following days as the remaining seven clubs revealed their picks.

Retention counts varied by team:

• Seven players retained: Lumbini Lions, Sudurpaschim Royals, Karnali Yaks, Chitwan Rhinos
• Six players retained: Kathmandu Gorkhas, Biratnagar Kings, Pokhara Avengers
• Five players retained: Janakpur Bolts

Janakpur's decision is the storyline that shaped the entire auction day. As the only Season 1 champions still searching for form, the Bolts opted for change and released their own marquee, wicketkeeper-batsman Aasif Sheikh, keeping only five of a possible seven players. That single call freed up the league's largest pre-auction purse (NPR 66.25 lakh) but also forced Janakpur to rebuild its wicketkeeping stocks from the auction floor.

A few names worth knowing: Sher Malla was Lumbini's joint-highest wicket-taker last season (17 wickets, level with Sandeep Lamichhane and Abinash Bohara). Binod Bhandari finished third on the Season 2 run-scoring list with 264 runs. Rohit Kumar Paudel was Lumbini's top domestic run-scorer with 276 runs, ahead of overseas signings D'Arcy Short (256) and Niroshan Dickwella (137).

CAN carried over the same three-tier pricing structure used in Season 2:

The five Category A names were Aasif Sheikh, Arjun Gharti, Bibek Kumar Yadav, Rupesh Kumar Singh and Trit Raj Das. Sheikh sat outside the normal Category A band: because he was a marquee player released just before the auction, CAN gave him a special base of NPR 15 lakh and ceiling of NPR 20 lakh — which is exactly the price he fetched when the bidding reached its cap and his name went to a lucky draw.

Any player bid up to the maximum price of their category by more than one franchise goes to a lucky draw rather than a straight sale — this happened five times in Category A (all five players) and twice in Category B (Dipak Bohara to Sudurpaschim, Kishore Mahato to Lumbini). No Category C player reached its price ceiling.

Of the 155-player pool, 118 went unsold on auction day — a reflection of how heavily loaded Category C is relative to actual demand. Verified unsold names include Amit Shrestha, Anuj Kumar Chanara, former Nepal U19 player Dipesh Kandel, and Sunam Gautam. Sharad Vesawkar is another experienced domestic name who went unsold.

Because no franchise had filled its full quota after the auction, CAN ran a wish-list round immediately afterward, letting teams pick unsold players to complete a 13-player domestic count:

• Requested 3 players: Karnali Yaks, Kathmandu Gorkhas
• Requested 2 players: Pokhara Avengers, Biratnagar Kings
• Requested 1 player: Janakpur Bolts, Chitwan Rhinos, Lumbini Lions

Each squad's 14th domestic spot is reserved for a player sourced through the team's own talent-hunt programme, separate from both the retention and auction processes. Unsold Category C players also remain eligible for late replacement signings if a team needs injury or availability cover before November 17.

Combining each retained core with confirmed auction buys gives the clearest available picture of where every squad stands. None of the eight teams had reached the full 16-player mark by auction close — the numbers below reflect confirmed retained-plus-auction signings only, before wish-list and talent-hunt additions are finalised.

Each squad still needs wish-list additions, a talent-hunt player and its full complement of overseas signings before it hits 16. Overseas-player announcements for Season 3 hadn't been finalised as of the auction date, so treat any "complete" foreign-player squad list you see elsewhere as provisional.

Only two figures were confirmed for pre-auction purses on the broadcast: Janakpur Bolts entered with the league's largest war chest (NPR 66.25 lakh, a direct result of releasing Aasif Sheikh) and Kathmandu Gorkhas entered with the smallest (NPR 34 lakh). CAN hasn't published a full pre-auction purse table for all eight teams, so the "spent" and "left" columns above — drawn from confirmed post-auction figures — are a more reliable read on financial standing than trying to back-calculate every team's starting purse.

Lumbini's spending is almost entirely explained by the Sheikh bidding war: 20 of their 44 lakh spent went on one player, leaving them with the tightest cushion in the league for late top-ups. Kathmandu Gorkhas sit at the opposite end — seven signings for 17 lakh, all in Category C, and their full remaining purse still intact.

The bump in domestic quota — from 12 to 14 — is arguably the most consequential rules change for squad-builders to track, since it means more Nepali players get contracted league-wide even though the same eight-team, roughly similar-sized auction pool is in play.

Lumbini Lions go into title defence with their spine almost untouched — Rohit Kumar Paudel and Sher Malla both stayed — and added a genuine upgrade behind the stumps in Aasif Sheikh. The trade-off is purse discipline: with only 5.25 lakh left, there's little room to react if an injury hits before November.

Sudurpaschim Royals, runners-up in each of the last two seasons, protected their strongest asset in captain Dipendra Singh Airee and used the auction to add bowling depth rather than chase a headline name — a squad built for consistency rather than a marquee splash.

Biratnagar Kings built around Sandeep Lamichhane's retained presence and used their purse on Rupesh Kumar Singh (15 lakh), continuing a recruitment pattern that has previously brought international names to the franchise.

Kathmandu Gorkhas were the most purse-conscious side of the day, spending just 17 lakh across seven signings — all Category C — while sitting on a full purse relative to what they entered with. Under head coach Monty Desai, that reads as a depth-first strategy rather than star-chasing.

Janakpur Bolts made the day's single biggest structural bet: releasing marquee Aasif Sheikh, then spending aggressively (41.25 lakh, the second-highest outlay) to rebuild around Trit Raj Das. Whether that pays off depends heavily on whether their wish-list and talent-hunt picks can cover the wicketkeeping gap Sheikh's exit created.

Pokhara Avengers, Karnali Yaks and Chitwan Rhinos all took a similar middle path — protecting a settled core (Kushal Bhurtel, Sompal Kami and Kushal Malla respectively remain as marquees) and using moderate, mid-table spending (26–26.75 lakh) to round out squad depth rather than chase Category A names.