Maharaja Trophy: T20 fever catches on in Karnataka as cricketers were picked via the ‘Maha Draft’ into the six teams that will battle it out for the top honours at the much-awaited Karnataka Maharaja Trophy KSCA T20 series, organised by the Karnataka State Cricket Association scheduled to begin from 7th August in Mysore. Maharaja Trophy: KSCA finalise teams for much-awaited T20 series.
Unlike the player auction, the draft first saw the team sponsors pick their coaching staff through a draft system after which, the coaching staff took charge of drafting players from category A, B, C and D into their respective teams at a glittering ceremony held here at the Karnataka Chinnaswamy Stadium in the presence of stalwart cricketer and KSCA President Roger Binny, J Abhiram (Honorary Vice-President, KSCA), Santosh Menon (Honorary Secretary, KSCA), Shavir Tarapore (Honorary Joint Secretary) and Vinay Mruthyunjaya (Honorary Treasurer, KSCA).
The Maha draw witnessed some dramatic moments particularly during the rounds that involved category A players who have played for India and also played the IPL. The ‘Maha Draft’ proceedings kicked off with Mysore Warriors calling for Karun Nair, followed by Gulbarga Mystics calling for Manish Pandey, Kalyani Bengaluru Blasters picked Mayank Agarwal while Shivamoga Strikers called for all-rounder K Gowtham, Mangalore United picked Abhinav Manohar and Hubli Tigers went with Abhimanyu Mithun.
Category A includes India and IPL players with a salary of INR 5 lakh. The next, Category B, includes State players who have taken part in only one of the senior tournaments (Ranji Trophy/ Vijay Hazare Trophy/ Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy) and they will be handed purse of INR 2 lakh.
Players who have been part of the age group tournaments (u-19/ u-23) will make up Category C with compensation of INR 1 lakh. Finally, Category D comprising Emerging Talent will bag INR 50,000. A total of 740 players featured in the Player Draft, with 14 players in Category A, 32 players in Category B, 111 players in Category C, 583 players in Category D.
“It was quite an interesting draw today. We had already chosen six chief coaches who came with their own team of support staff including one state selectors. They were all quite well-prepared I must say, and had come with good strategies. Each team has now picked 18 players and will pick the mandatory two players from their catchment areas basis their selection criteria. With just about a week left for the start of the tournament, there is certainly a lot of excitement,” stated KSCA President Roger Binny after the draw.
Team composition Karnataka Maharaja Trophy T20 series:
The Kalyani Bengaluru Blasters: Naziruddin T (Coach), Pavan K B (Assistant Coach), Ragotham Navli (Selector), Pradeep Kumar N (Video Analyst); They picked the following players: Mayank Agarwal, Suchith J, Anirudha Joshi, Pradeep T, Kranthi Kumar, Chetan LR, Aneesh KV, Kumar LR, Rakshit S (W/k), Rishi Bopanna, Santok Singh, Suraj Ahuja, Gurbag Sariya, Lochan Gowda, Ronit More, Sean Ishan Joseph, Kush Marathe, Tanay Walmik.
The Hubli Tigers enlisted the services of Deepak Chowgle (Coach), Raju Bhatkal (Assistant Coach), Anand Katti (Selector), Shashikumar (Video Analyst). The team have picked the following players: Mithun A, Luvnith Sisodia, Koushik V, Liyan Khan, Naveen MG, Anand D, Shivkumar BU, Tushar Singh, Akshan Rao, Zahoor Farooqi, Rohan Naveen, Saurav Srivastav, Sagar Solanki, Gautam Sagar, Roshan A, Rahul Singh Rawat, Shishir Bhawane, Sharan Gowda.
Gulbarga Mystics line up with Mansur Ali Khan (Coach), Rajashekar Shanbal (Assistant Coach), Santosh V (Selector), Sachidananda (Video Analyst). The players they’ve picked are: Manish Pandey, Devdutt Padikkal, Karthik CA, Manoj Bhandage, Vidwath Kaverappa, K Krishna, Abhilash Shetty, Kushal Wadhwani, Pranav Bhatia, Shrijith KL (W/K), Ritesh Bhatkal, Mohit BA, Rohan Patil, Dhanush Gowda, Mohammad Aqib Jawad, Shreesha Achar, Yeshwanth Acharya, Aaron Christie.
Mangalore United acquired Stuart Binny (Coach), C Raghavendra (Assistant Coach), MV Prasanth (Selector), P Rajeev (Video Analyst). The players they have picked are: Abhinav Manohar, Samarth R, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Amit Verma, Venkatesh M, Aneeshwar Gautam, Sujay Sateri, Rohit Kumar AC, Macneil Noronha, HS Sharath, Shashikumar K, Nikin Jose, Raghuveer, Amogh S, Chinmay NA, Aditya Somanna, Yashwardhan, Dheeraj Gowda.
Shivamogga Strikers picked Nikhil Haldipur (Coach), Aditya Sagar (Assistant Coach), A R Mahesh (Selector), Sharath (Video Analyst) The Players they have brought in are: K Gowtham, KC Cariappa, Rohan Kadam, Siddharth KV, Darshan MB, Stalin Hoover, Avinash D, Smaran R, Sharath BR, Rajvir Wadhwa, Rajendra, Uttam Aiyappa, Chaitanya S, Shreyas BM, KS Devaiah, Vinay Sagar, Shreyas SP, Puneeth S.
Mysore Warriors enlisted the services of PV Shashikanth (Coach), SL Akshay (Assistant Coach), KL Ashwath (Selector), Kiran T (Video Analyst). The players they’ve picked for their side are: Karun Nair, Shreyas Gopal, Shubhang Hegde, Pavan Deshpande, Vidyadhar Patil, Nihal Ullal, Prateek Jain, Lochan Appanna, Chiranjeevi GS, Naga Bharath, Bharath Doori, Shivraj, Monish Reddy, Varun Rao, Rahul Prasanna, Nitin Bhille, Aditya Goel, Abhishek Ahlawat.
The marquee Twenty20 cricket tournament will be organised in the memory of the HRH late Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar, the former President of KSCA and Maharaja of Mysore. The Maharaja Trophy KSCA T20 will commence on 7th August in Mysore with the first leg of matches being held at the Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar Ground in Mysore. A total of 18 matches will be held in Mysore followed by a total of 16 matches including the final being held in Bengaluru at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
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KSCA on Friday announced The Shriram Group as the title sponsor for the marquee Maharaja Trophy KSCA T20 at a press conference held at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. They come on board as title sponsors for a period of 3 years, commencing this season. The two-week T20 extravaganza will be telecast live on Star Sports 2 and Star Sports Kannada. It will also be streamed live on the Fancode app for larger consumption.
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