The Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) organised the maha draught of the Maharaja Trophy KSCA T20 in a ceremony held at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Saturday.
The six teams selected their coaching staff through a draught process in front of KSCA President and former India all-rounder Roger Binny, Vice-President J Abhiram, Secretary Santosh Menon, Joint Secretary Shavir Tarapore, and Treasurer Vinay Mruthyunjaya.
After then, it was up to the coaching staff to choose players for categories A, B, C, and D and place them on their appropriate teams. IPL players from India and with salaries of INR 5 lakhs are under category A. State athletes who have competed in just one of the senior competitions (Ranji Trophy, Vijay Hazare Trophy, or Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy) are under Category B and will receive a purse of INR 2 lakhs.
Players who have competed in the U-19 and U-23 age group competitions will fall under Category C, which will get a payout of INR 1 lakh. Emerging Talent is included in Category D and receives a remuneration of INR 50,000. The Player Draft included a total of 740 participants, including 14 players in Category A, 32 players in Category B, 111 players in Category C, and 583 players in Category D.
Dramatic moments occurred during the draw, particularly when players from category A were selected. Batter Karun Nair was selected by the Mysore Warriors, and then batsman Manish Pandey was selected by the Gulbarga Mystics.
While Shivamoga Strikers hired all-arounder K Gowtham, Kalyani Bengaluru Blasters selected opening batter Mayank Agarwal. Hubli Tigers selected bowler Abhimanyu Mithun, while Mangalore United selected batter Abhinav Manohar.
"Today's draw was extremely interesting. We had previously selected six chief coaches, each of whom arrived with a group of assistants, including one state selector. I must admit that they had all come prepared and with sound plans."
"Now that all 18 players have been chosen, each team will choose the two more players from within their catchment areas in accordance with their selection criteria. There is undoubtedly a lot of excitement as the competition begins in just over a week "Binny said after the draw was over.
The first leg of the 18 matches that make up the Maharaja Trophy KSCA T20 will take place at the Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar Ground in Mysore on August 7. The following 16 games, including the championship game on August 26 at Bengaluru's M Chinnaswamy Stadium, will follow.
The league serves as a successor for the Karnataka Premier League (KPL), which played for eight seasons until 2019 before being suspended due to a match-fixing and betting scandal and the Covid-19 outbreak.
Team Squad:
Kalyani Bengaluru Blasters: Naziruddin T (Coach), Pavan K B (Assistant Coach), Ragotham Navli (Selector), Pradeep Kumar N (Video Analyst)
Players: Mayank Agarwal, Suchith J, Anirudha Joshi, Pradeep T, Kranthi Kumar, Chetan LR, Aneesh KV, Kumar LR, Rakshith S, Rishi Bopanna, Santok Singh, Suraj Ahuja (WK), P Gurbax Arya, Lochan Gowda, Ronit More, Shaun Tristan Joseph, Kush Marate and Tanay Walmik.
Hubli Tigers: Deepak Chowgle (Coach), Raju Bhatkal (Assistant Coach), Anand Katti (Selector), Shashikumar (Video Analyst).
Players: Abhimanyu Mithun, Luvnith Sisodia (WK), Koushik V, Liyan Khan, Naveen MG, Anand Doddamani, Shivkumar BU, Tushar Singh, Akshan Rao, Zahoor Farooqi, Rohan Naveen, Saurav Srivastav, Sagar Solanki (WK), Gowtham Sagar, Roshan Ashwathiah, Rahul Singh Rawat, Shishir Bhawane, Sharan Goud.
Gulbarga Mystics: Mansur Ali Khan (Coach), Rajashekar Shanbal (Assistant Coach), Santosh V (Selector), Sachidananda (Video Analyst).
Players: Manish Pandey, Devdutt Padikkal, Karthik CA, Manoj Bhandage, Vidwath Kaverappa, Kruthik Krishna, Abhilash Shetty, Kushaal M Wadhwani, Pranav Bhatia, Shrijith KL (WK), Ritesh Bhatkal, Mohit BA, Rohan Patil, Dhanush Gowda, Mohammed Aqib Jawad, Shreesha Achar, Jeshwanth Acharya, Aaron Christie.
Mangalore United: Stuart Binny (Coach), C Raghavendra (Assistant Coach), MV Prasanth (Selector), P Rajeev (Video Analyst).
Players: Abhinav Manohar, Samarth R, Vyshak V, Amit Verma, Venkatesh M, Aneeshwar Gautam, Sujay Sateri, Rohith Kumar AC, Macneil Noronha, Sharath HS, Shashi Kumar K, Nikin Jose SJ, Raghuveer Pavalur, Amogh S, Chinmay NA, Aditya Somanna, Yashovardhan Parantap, Dheeraj J Gowda.
Shivamogga Strikers: Nikhil Haldipur (Coach), Aditya Sagar (Assistant Coach), A R Mahesh (Selector), Sharath (Video Analyst)
Players: K Gowtham, KC Cariappa, Rohan Kadam, Siddharth KV, Darshan MB, Stalin Hoover, Avinash D, Smaran R, Sharath BR (WK), Rajvir Wadhwa, Rajendra Danganavar, Utham Aiyappa, Chaitanya S, Shreyas BM, KS Devaiah, Vinay Sagar, Shreyas SP, Punith S.
Mysore Warriors: PV Shashikanth (Coach), SL Akshay (Assistant Coach), KL Ashwath (Selector), Kiran T (Video Analyst).
Players: Karun Nair, Shreyas Gopal, Shubhang Hegde, Pavan Deshpande, Vidyadhar Patil, Nihal Ullal, Prateek Jain, Lochan Appanna, Chiranjeevi GS, Naga Bharath, Bharath Duri, Shivraj S, Monish Reddy, Varun Rao TN, Rahul Prasanna, Nitin Bhille, Aditya Goyal, Abhishek Ahlawat.