The likes of Virender Sehwag and Munaf Patel, discards from the Indian team, will be seen in action in this edition’s KSCA all-India invitation tournament which kicks off here on Wednesday.
Sehwag, dropped after another disappointing one-day outing on India’s tour of Bangladesh a couple of months ago, and Patel, whose fitness problems and patchy shows resulted in his ouster from the side, will be representing their employers ONGC, who begin their campaign against Indian Airlines in the second round of matches on August 3 and 4.
Besides these two, the other internationals to feature in the fortnight event are Robin Uthappa (Air India), Dinesh Mongia (Chemplast) and Suresh Raina, who will be leading Air India.
Hosts Karnataka have fielded three teams -- KSCA XI, KSCA President’s XI and KSCA Colts -- in the 12-team tournament, which will have four groups of three sides each. Last year, there were 16 teams in the fray.
KSCA XI, which comprises the cream of Karnataka players, is led by Yere Goud while the President’s XI and Colts have Sudhindra Shinde and Stuart Binny shepherding them respectively. For the first time in several years, Tamil Nadu will be fielding a side. The young side will be led by Shri Vasudeva Das K.
Chemplast are among the teams to feature in the opening set of matches. The defending champions take on Baroda Cricket Association while KSCA President’s XI meet Air India. In other matches, last year’s losing finalists Indian Oil Corporation face off with Kerala Cricket Association and TNCA XI run into Indian Airlines.
KSCA XI, who lost to IOC in the semifinals the previous time, are scheduled to start their campaign only in the third set of matches on August 6 and 7. Incidentally, IOC are their initial hurdle.
All matches will be of two days’ duration with 100-overs-a-side. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the quarterfinals. The semifinals are slated on August 11 and 12 while the final will be played on August 13 and 14.
Teams: KSCA XI: Yere Goud (capt), Gaurav Dhiman, Bharat Chipli, Pawan KB, Deepak Chougule, Raghu C, Thilak Naidu, R Vinay Kumar, C Raghavendra, Udit Patel, Dhananjaya S, Manjunath DN, Manjunath MK, Vinno Prasad N, Umesh Karvi. Coach: Rajesh Kamath.
KSCA President’s XI: Sudhindra Shinde (capt), Gautham CM, Karthik CB, Ganesh Satish, Amit Verma, Devraj Patil, Sunil N raju, Ryan Ninan, Abrar Kazi, Arvind S, Chaitra G, Vinodh S, Raju Bhatkal, Vinay G, Yogesh P, Mohammad Arif. Coach: Shashikanth PV.
KSCA Colts: Stuart Binny (capt), Jonathan R, Ameet SN, Keshav Chitta, Manjunath SP, V Cheluvaraj, Arjun Shetty, Suraj Sampath, Nikhil Kashyap, Nelson Pinto, Akshay SL, Darshan MR, Mithun A, Hardik Monhot, Avinash KC, Abhinav Kumar. Coach: Vijay Bharadwaj.
Groups: ‘A’ Zone: KSCA XI, Kerala CA, Indian Oil Corporation.
‘B’ Zone: KSCA President’s XI, Air India, Hyderabad Cricket Association.
‘C’ Zone: Chemplast, Baroda Cricket Association, KSCA Colts.
‘D’ Zone: TNCA XI, Indian Airlines, ONGC.