JOIN USBijapur Bulls mean business
At an impressive and stylish do in a city hotel, the Bulls unleashed their team in some style, with hip-shaking music, a fashion show and the unveiling of the team jersey making for a heady cocktails as players well known and not so well known basked in glory.
The KPL’s second most expensive player, Stuart Binny, was flown down from Chennai for the function, while skipper Sudhindra Shinde made the relatively shorter journey from the JIRS ground, where a second Karnataka team is involved in Twenty20 action, jostling for attention with opening batsman Mithun Beerala.
Binny, not surprisingly, was the cynosure, receiving the warmest and wildest applause on a night of cheers. The effervescent all-rounder, it may be remembered, fetched Rs 3.20 lakh at the auction on August 14, only behind Robin Uthappa in terms of money spent on one particular player.
There was approval aplenty for some others too who will hope to make a name for themselves during the length of the tournament, as well as for the man who has entrusted with the coaching responsibilities, PV Shashikanth.
The team jersey was launched by State Sports Minister Gulihatti Shekar, who was accompanied by Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa's son and Member of Parliament, BS Raghavendra.
Co-owners Nandeesh Reddy, Syed Mukaram, Sujit Sasi Pillai, Aravind Venkatesh Reddy and Kiran Kattimani will be hoping the performances on the field now match the pyrotechnics off it.
It’s Mangalore United!
Meanwhile, the Mangalore franchise team, to be called Mangalore United, released their logo in Mangalore, also on Thursday night.
Commentator Charu Sharma unveiled the team name and logo at a colourful function.
The logo bears the slogan ‘Cricket for unity.’ Team owner Mohiuddin Bava said the process of selecting three local players had been on since August 17.
A total of 45 members out of 425 original aspirants have been shortlisted, and the chosen three will be picked on August 30, he said.
“For the first time in cricket history, we are organising a cricket reality show at NITK grounds. The show will be held among four teams formed out of the selected 45 members,” he said.
DH News Service