Beerala, Johnson, Mansur in elite KPL pool of 48

KSCA releases shortlist for auction to be held on August 14

Initially supposed to have been a 40-member core group, the list has now been pegged at 48, each of the eight franchises allowed to buy six players with a cash limit that, as of now, stands at Rs 6 lakh.

Mithun Beerala, the 31-year-old right-hander who last played for Karnataka in the 2004-05 season, and has since turned out for Rajasthan and Haryana, makes a return to ‘State’ cricket, as does the 37-year-old medium-paced duo of David Johnson and Mansur Ali Khan, the last-named coaching the KSCA Colts XI in the KSCA all-India invitation tournament.

The three join the batting trio of Robin Uthappa, Ganesh Satish and R Jonathon as additions to the 42 members spread across the three KSCA sides which have qualified for the last eight of their own tournament who will be available for purchase next Friday.

The elite list contains 16 members from the ‘catchment’ areas of Mysore, Belgaum, Mangalore, Shimoga and Hubli-Dharwad, former Indian left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi the most prominent name.

Each side must have at least two players from its own zone in the 20-member squad, it may be recalled, though they need not necessarily figure in the playing eleven.

It is becoming increasingly unlikely that the big names of Indian cricket from outside the State will take part in KPL’s first edition. Tentatively slated for September 9-23, the KPL overlaps not only with the Indian team’s tour of Sri Lanka but also the Champions Trophy in South Africa.

In a reiteration of what he had said earlier, Karnataka State Cricket Association secretary Brijesh Patel said not very high-profile players who played in the IPL could make up the outstation players.

“We are trying to get those players who are signed with IPL teams, but did not get into the final squads of their respective teams,” Patel observed.

“We have spoken to personnel at Delhi Daredevils and Kolkata Knight Riders, and they have informally agreed to send three players each at their cost. We are hoping to get BCCI clearance during the Working Committee meeting on August 13.”

The proposed prize money of Rs 20 lakh, Patel said, would be revisited. “The flow of money at the bidding for teams was a lot more than expected. Now, we have to think of increasing the prize money accordingly,” he added. “We have set a base bid of Rs 75 lakh for the tournament sponsor. Tenders have already been invited and we will identify a sponsor soon.”

DH News Service

The elite 48-man pool (catchment area Bangalore unless mentioned): Robin Uthappa, Sunil Joshi (Hubli-Dharwad), Bharat Chipli, CM Gautam, KB Pawan (Mysore), Manish Pandey, Deepak Chougule (Belgaum), Thilak Naidu, B Akhil, Udit Patel, R Vinay Kumar (Hubli-Dharwad), A Mithun, Mohammed Arif (Mangalore), David Mathias, Aniruddha Joshi (Hubli-Dharwad), C Raghu, CB Karthik, Karun Nair, Amit Verma, Sunil Raju, Devraj Patil (Shimoga), Stuart Binny, KP Appanna, S Aravind, NC Aiyappa, MR Darshan (Mangalore), P Yogesh (Mysore).

AV Raghavendra Rao, DV Anish, Sudhindra Shinde, Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul (Mangalore), Kunal Kapoor, Pawan Deshpande, Raju Bhatkal (both Hubli-Dharwad), Vinayak Uthappa, C Raghavendra (Mysore), Abrar Kazi, Aditya Sagar (Mysore), SL Akshay (Shimoga), Sinan Abdul Khader (Mangalore), Chetan William, Suraj Sampath, Ganesh Satish, David Johnson, R Jonathon, Mithun Beerala, Mansur Ali Khan.