India will host the Legends League Cricket (LLC) for the first time across six different cities. The league, featuring four teams and 16 matches, will get underway on September 16 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata followed by the games in Lucknow, New Delhi, Cuttack and Jodhpur. The venue for play-offs and finals are yet to be decided.
Meanwhile, four franchises namely Gujarat Giants, India Capitals, Manipal Tigers and Bhilwara Kings assembled with a combined purse of Rs 32 crore to sign 59 cricketers from the players' draft held virtually on Friday (September 2) for the upcoming edition of the Legends League Cricket.
The players' draft featured 79 cricketers and each team had a purse of Rs 8 crore. The teams now have three more days to submit their final squad wherein they can rope in more players with the available purse.
"Among the teams, Manipal Tigers splurged the most amount of Rs 6,91,20,000 and have a remaining purse of 1,08,80,000. Tigers were followed closely by India Capitals as they spent Rs 6,38,80,000 and Gujarat Giants who splurged Rs 5,51,80,000 on their stars. Bhilwara Kings were the most economical as they spent Rs 5,62,20,000. All of them have made judicious spend, the player mix seems great and it will be very interesting to see what each of them do now on the field. I wish everyone best of luck," said Raman Raheja, CEO and Co-Founder of the Legends League Cricket.
Manipal Tigers bought former Australia speedster Brett Lee, while Gujarat Giants roped in local lad and former India wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel. India Capitals picked Ravi Bopara while Bhilwara Kings added Yusuf Pathan, who will get a chance to play alongside his brother Irfan in the tournament.
Gujarat Giants have picked a balanced team. Apart from Parthiv, they signed Sri Lanka’s mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis and former New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori. West Indies batter Lendl Simmons is expected to open the innings with skipper Virender Sehwag, while Mitchell McClenaghan will lead the pace attack.
Ex-Australia pacer Mitchell Johnson will also appear in the league after being picked by India Capitals. The left-armer will bowl in tandem with former England pacer Liam Plunkett. Legends such as Jacques Kallis and Ross Taylor are also part of the Gautam Gambhir-led India Capitals team.
Besides Brett Lee, Manipal fetched spin wizard Muttiah Muralidharan, who will get a chance to play with former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, who is also the team's captain.
Bhilwara Kings’ other top buys were Shane Watson, Sreesanth and Monty Panesar, among others.
Squads:
Gujarat Giants: Virender Sehwag (c), Parthiv Patel, Elton Chigumbura, Chris Tremlett, Richard Levi, Graeme Swann, Joginder Sharma, Ashoke Dinda, Daniel Vettori, Kevin O'Brien, Stuart Binny, Mitchell McClenaghan, Lendl Simmons, Manvinder Bisla, Ajantha Mendis
India Capitals: Gautam Gambhir (c), Ravi Bopara, Farveez Maharoof, Mitchell Johnson, Jacques Kallis, Pankaj Singh, Ross Taylor, Prosper Utseya, John Mooney, Mashrafe Mortaza, Hamilton Masakadza, Rajat Bhatia, Liam Plunkett, Asghar Afghan, Denesh Ramdin, Pravin Tambe.
Manipal Tigers: Harbhajan Singh (c), Brett Lee, Andrew Flintoff, VRV Singh, Parvinder Awana, Reetinder Sodhi, Romesh Kaluwitharana, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Lance Klusener, Ryan Sidebottom, Mohammad Kaif, Phil Mustard, Muttiah Muralitharan
Bhilwara Kings: Irfan Pathan (c), Yusuf Pathan, Sudeep Tyagi, Tino Best, Owais Shah, Tim Bresnan, Shane Watson, Sreesanth, Nick Compton, Matt Prior, Samit Patel, Fidel Edwards, William Porterfield, Naman Ojha, Monty Panesar.
