No disadvantage, say Rendezvous

“I don’t think the others will be spending so much as there is an issue of retaining players also. The teams will be retaining seven players. But they will still be spending from their purse of $7 million on retaining these players,” Keshav PT, from Film Waves, one of the companies to have invested in the franchisee, said.

Keshav said while the team will not be expected to get the best of the players in the first auction, nothing could be taken for granted.

“The advantage of being the first has gone to the eight teams that came in earlier. We have entered when the IPL has already proven itself. That is the premium we pay. We don’t expect to get the best of the players in the first year but we will try our best.

Keshav said the team has not been given any particular catchment area. “We have no specific catchment areas. We will go for players who would not be retained. We are looking for players from Kerala as we want to promote the sport in that state,” Keshav said.

RSW felt an icon player would be good to have as far as marketing of the team was concerned. “It’s very important to have an icon player. It is eventually around him that you will market your team. But if you look at the teams, they are using a bunch of players unless you are talking about someone like Sachin (Tendulkar). Overall, I think an icon will be good to have,” Keshav said.

RSW CEO Shailendra Gaikwad said one of the reasons for the group to choose Kochi was because of the untapped potential in Kerala.