There’s another Twenty20 tournament around the corner. The short tournament — spanning 23 days — will see eight teams competing in three venues across Tamil Nadu.
The star cast
It might be the third State-level T20 competition in the country but it boasts some reputed international names in the line-up, including Dinesh Karthik, Ravichandran Ashwin, L. Balaji.
Outstation players registered with the TNCA, such as Piyush Chawla and Hardik Pandya, were not a part of the TNPL’s inaugural draft held on July 30 but are expected to join the league once the TNCA receives a confirmation from the BCCI.
And, Michael Bevan and Lance Klusener will be around to coach two teams.
The teams and their owners
The franchise representatives were allowed to pick the names of districts or towns, excluding Chennai, for their teams. Thoothukudi Sports, the top bidder at Rs. 5.21 crore was given the first choice. It chose Thoothukudi.
Metronation Chennai Television, which owns Thanthi TV, was the second highest bidder at Rs. 5.13 crore, and it chose the suburb from South Chennai.
Lyca Productions (Rs. 5.01 crore) picked Coimbatore, and Kothari (Madras) Ltd. (Rs. 4.001 crore) opted for Madurai. Ruby Builders (Rs. 3.69 crore) took Kancheepuram.
Former India player V.B. Chandrasekar (Rs. 3.48 crore), the lone cricketer among the franchise owners, zeroed in on Thiruvallur. “As a former cricketer, I know that TNPL will be an excellent competition for spotting talent,” he had said.
TAKE Solutions (Rs. 3.42 crore) named Dindigul, while Chettinad Apparels (Rs. 3.3 crore) homed in on Karaikudi.
Economics of the T20 league
There’s a lot of money invested in the league. The TNCA got Rs. 33 crore — 3.3 times the minimum bid amount — during the exercise of picking teams for the league.
The base price for a franchise, for a period of 10 years, has been fixed at Rs. 1.25 crore a year.
The players will be given to the franchises on a rotational basis with the team that bids the most having the first right over a particular cricketer.
For the first five years, central rights, minus the match staging costs, will be shared 80 per cent among the eight teams with the rest going to the TNCA.
As much as 65 per cent will be divided equally between the sides with the rest 15 per cent given away as per a side’s standing in the league.
Only cricketers registered in Tamil Nadu are eligible for the competition.
A salary cap of Rs. 5 lakh for Indian players has been fixed.
For players who have represented the State, a maximum limit of Rs. 2.50 lakh has been set. The highest amount for the other players would be Rs. 1 lakh.
No current international or first class cricketer, nor his close relatives, will be eligible to bid for a side.
STAR India will be the broadcaster for the competition that will begin in the last week of August and continue till the second week of September. The deal will be worth between Rs. 7.2 and 10 crore for the first year, and eight to 12 in the second, based on certain calculations.
Who’s playing for which team
Thoothukudi
Dinesh Karthik .K, Washington Sundar .M .S, Aswin Crist .A, Abhinav Mukund, Aushik Srinivas .R., Kaushik Gandhi .M, Balaji .L, Anand Subramanian, Akash Sumra, Sathyanarayan .R, Sushil .U, Ganesh Moorthi .M, Athisayaraj Davidson .V, Maaruthi Raghav .V, Vishaal .R, Siddarth S Ahuja, Lakshman .V, Nathan .S .P, Nicul Anand .G
Chepauk
Sathish .R, Yo Mahesh .V, Thalaivan Sargunam .X, Antony Dhas .W, Gopinath .K .H, Sai Kishore .R, Sasidev .U, Joel Joseph .J, Tamil Kumaran .D, Alexandar .R, Vasanth Saravanan .S, Rahul .B, Ashwath Mukunthan, Karthik .S, Rajeel Abdul Rahman, Nirmal Kumar .P .S, Vasudevan .S .I, Aditya Barooah, Shibi Jawahar .V
Coimbatore
Vijay .M, Syed Mohammed .J, Mohammed .M, Suryap Prakash .L, Vijay Shankar, Siva Kumar .M .K, Rohith .R, Vignesh .K, Anirudh Sita Ram .B, Ajith Ram .S, Harish Kumar .S, Akshay V Srinivasan, Arun .B, Anchit .D, Kamalesh .M, Tarun Srinivas .S, Adhithya Giridhar, Gowtham Thamarai Kannan .K
Madurai
Arun Karthick .K .B, Suresh Kumar .S, Thiyagarajan .S, Francis Rokins .P, Chandrasekar .D .T, Vignesh Ganapathi, Raja .M, Shijit Chandran .P, Vignesh .L, Maan K Bafna, Muruganantham .S .V, Aswin Kumar .S, Amarnath .P, Varun Narendar, Sakthi .P, Anton Andrew Subikshan .M, Mihir .R Edward Kennedy .A, Madhu .C
Kancheepuram
Indrajith .B, Kousik .J, Jesuraj .R, Shahrukh Khan .M, Bharath Shankar .K, Prathiban .A .C, Varun Kumar .K, Prabhu .M, Kaushik .J, Ganesh .L, Adithya Ganesh, Siddharth .S, Suthesh .R, Nilesh Subramanian .R, Akkil Srinaath, Pradosh Ranjan Paul, Mitchell Anthony Mannays, Trilok Nag .H, Aditya .B
Didigul
Ashwin .R, Ashwin .M, Natarajan .T, Sanjay .M .S, Jagadeesan .N, Ganga Sridhar Raju .V, Subramania Siva .V, Sunny Kumar Singh .Y, Mukunth .K, Wilkins Victor, Ashwin Venkataraman, Shyam Sundar .S, Dinesh .S, Yazh Arun Mozhi .M .E, Prashanth Prabhu .D, Abishiek .S, Vivek .R, Adithya Arun, Silambarasan .M
Tiruvallur
Aparajith .B, Abhishek Tanwar, Rahil S Shah, Kavin .R, Chaturved .N .S, Malolan Rangarajan, Rohit .R, Jaganath Sinivas .R S, Vignesh .G .V, Sanjay Yadav .R, Arun .S, Samruddh Bhat, Hari Nishaanth .C, Lakshminarayanan .M, Govindaraj .D, Silambarasan .R, Mukilesh .U, Samuel .S, Santosh Shiv .S
Karaikudi
Badrinath .S Aniruda .S, Sunil Sam, Suresh Babu .M, Lokeshwar .S, Ganapathi Chandrasekar, Shoaib Md Khan, Vishal Vaidhya .K, Sonu Yadav .R, Rajkumar .R, Mohan Prasath .S, Vijay Kumar .M, Abhinav .M, Jerome .A, Srinivasan .R, Kiran Akash .L, Sujay .S, Swaminathan .S, Shajahan .M
