Albert Tuti Patriots and Chepauk Super Gillies have been the two best teams of the TNPL across both seasons with a title each.
With the curtain coming down on the second edition on Sunday, the coaches of both the sides spoke about the future of the league and were open to the idea of putting all the players back in the draft pool for the next year.
Hemang Badani, coach of the victorious Super Gillies, felt few sides needed more good players and it will be in the best interests of the league to have a fresh draft.
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Limit it to two players
“If the league has to sustain with good competition, it won’t be a bad idea to get all the players back into the pool again. If we are retaining, we can maybe limit it to just two players per side.
“If you go for four players, it is too much because those four players are mostly the cream in every side. So if I retain my best four, then there won’t be nothing much left.”
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Patriots’ mentor Monty Desai added, “I think the best way forward for the TNPL is to have most of them back there.”
Super Gillies, which had not won a game against Patriots till the final across two seasons, did not start well when Player-of-the-Tournament Washington Sundar was dropped off the second ball of the match.
Badani recalled he could not but think about the game in Tirunelveli in which the youngster smashed a century after a similar reprieve.
“My first reaction was ‘guys not again.’ But thank god we got back.”
Gillies did well to restrict the star-studded Patriots’ line-up for just 143 and Badani highlighted that playing three left-arm spinners did the trick.
Promising players
Like last year, the TNPL this year too has thrown up some promising players and both coaches stressed the need to groom these talents.
Badani spoke about Antony Dhas saying, “Antony is a great find. He is a very good fielder and can strike the ball well. He can be groomed and if someone works with his bowling, he will be ready for shorter formats.”
Another fast bowler who was impressive was Patriots’ Athisayaraj Davidson with his slingy Lasith Malinga-like action. “The State cricket association can definitely look at how to nurture him,” said Desai.