Sports
Dhangadi Premier League: Six teams, captains, owners unveiled
Dhangadi Cricket Academy (DCA) and Sudur Paschimanchal Academy (SPA) on Thursday unveiled the six teams and their captains for Dhangadi Premier League (DPL).Dhangadi Cricket Academy (DCA) and Sudur Paschimanchal Academy (SPA) on Thursday unveiled the six teams and their captains for Dhangadi Premier League (DPL).
The lucrative tournament, which gives away Rs 1.5 million to the champions apart from assurance of hefty amount to cricketers following an auction, is scheduled to kick off from March 19 to April 1 in Dhangadi. CYC Attariya, Chauraha of Dhangadi, Kanchanpur Iconic are the three teams from Farwest Region, while Kathmandu Goldens, Rupandehi Challengers and Biratnagar Kings will be the franchise from three other cities. The captains were named for the respective teams after a lucky draw.
Attariya and Chauraha were the teams that compete in the Dhangadi Cricket League which has been now upgraded into DPL. National team skipper Paras Khadka will lead Chauraha which is owned by Dhangadi’s local businessman Rajkumar Shrestha. Gyanendra Malla will skipper Attariya, owned by Creative Youth Club and has Nar Bahadur Rai as its president. Sharad Vesawkar was named the captain of Kings belonging to Mahalaxmi Cable which is owned by former national cricketer Paras Luniya.
Veteran left arm spinner Shakti Gauchan will take the reigns of Rupandehi Challengers owned by SR Group and has Suraj Upreti as its proprietor. Another national team left arm spinner Basanta Regmi will look after Goldens, a franchise belonging to Golden Gate International College owned by Ramesh Silwal.
Binod Bhandari will skipper Iconic owned by Pitamber Joshi. The respective captains will get Rs 150,000 for this year’s tournament and will not undergo auction. A total of 217 players have been registered for the tournament and they will be kept in auction amidst a ceremony on Saturday.
The organisers have also categorised the registered players labelling base price for the auction. Current national team cricketers who have played minimum 15 international matches have been set a base price of Rs 50,000. The base price for national cricketers, who have played less than 15 matches, along with U-19 World Cup players will start from Rs 30,000.
Former U-19 national cricketers along with U-23, U-21, U-17, U-16 and U-15 cricketers will have a base price of Rs 25,000, while the uncapped players will have a base price of Rs 20,000. Each team needs to have four uncapped cricketers in their squad.
“Its a great thing that after so much of hard work we are finally able to bring it into good shape. We are sure that this tournament will help in taking Nepali cricket to another level,” said SPA Director Subash Bahadur Shahi.
The tournament will be held at the SSP grounds in Dhangadi under Twenty20 format. The top four teams after a round robin league will enter the playoffs.