Maharaja Trophy KSCA T20 Organises 'Maha Draft' To Finalise Coaches, Players

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The maha draft of the Maharaja Trophy KSCA T20 was organised by the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) in a ceremony held at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Saturday.

In the presence 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, the six teams picked their coaching staff through a draft system.

After this, the coaching staff took charge of drafting players from categories A, B, C and D into their respective teams. Category A includes India and IPL players with a salary of INR 5 lakhs. 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 a purse of INR 2 lakhs.

Players who have been part of the age group tournaments (U-19 & U-23) will make up Category C with a purse of INR 1 lakh. Category D comprises Emerging Talent with a salary of INR 50,000 rupees. 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 and 583 players in Category D.

The draw witnessed some dramatic moments, especially when the draft of players from category A happened. Mysore Warriors picked batter Karun Nair, followed by Gulbarga Mystics roping in batter Manish Pandey.

Kalyani Bengaluru Blasters picked opening batter Mayank Agarwal while Shivamoga Strikers acquired the services of all-rounder K Gowtham. Mangalore United picked batter Abhinav Manohar while Hubli Tigers took in pacer Abhimanyu Mithun.

"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 based on their selection criteria. With just about a week left for the start of the tournament, there is certainly a lot of excitement," stated Binny after the draw ended.

The Maharaja Trophy KSCA T20 will commence on August 7 in Mysore with the first leg of matches totalling to 18 to be held at the Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar Ground in Mysore. It will be followed by the next 16 matches, including the final on August 26, to take place at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.

The competition is a replacement for the Karnataka Premier League (KPL), which ran for eight seasons till 2019 before a match-fixing and betting scandal, followed by Covid-19 pandemic, forced a stoppage of the tournament.

Teams' composition:

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.