By Jaideep Sarin, IANS
Chandigarh : Team India vice captain Yuvraj Singh has hit another straight drive — his old Honda car has been sold in an online charity auction for Rs.446,000 ($12,200).
The auction of the 2001-model gold colour Honda City car with a Chandigarh registration (CH-03-E-0907) ended Thursday night on popular auction site eBay.
Out of the 88 bids for the car, the highest was more than double the vehicle’s value in the second-hand market – estimated at Rs.200,000.
The southpaw has already pledged the proceeds of the car auction to Himachal Pradesh-based NGO Bharmour Development Agency in the remote tribal belt of Bharmour in the state’s Chamba district.
This is the first car that the cricketer bought from the money he earned from playing for the country.
Yuvi — as Yuvraj is popular among friends in his hometown Chandigarh and in cricketing circles — has been seen driving this car often, though now he has swankier cars in his stable – a BMW sports model worth Rs.6.5 million and a Porsche worth nearly Rs.10 million.
The Porsche was gifted to him by cricket administrator Lalit Modi after Yuvraj hit six sixes in an over in the recently concluded Twenty-20 cricket World Championship.
Yuvraj has already posted a signed letter on the eBay website, saying he had given his Honda car to be put up for auction and that the proceeds would be used by Bharmour Development Agency.
“This is a very good gesture on the part of Yuvraj. The remote area of Bharmour will benefit from the funds,” Himachal’s Housing And Animal Husbandry Minister Harsh Mahajan, who comes from Chamba district, told IANS.
The star cricketer will hand over the keys of the car to the highest bidder himself, at a function to be held in Chandigarh or Gurgaon next month, the NGO has said.
The bidding started Oct 15 with a reserve price of Rs.10,000. On the last day of bidding, Oct 25, all the bids were above Rs.400,000