Published: Aug 30, 2016, 05:30 PM (IST)
Edited: Aug 30, 2016, 10:18 PM (IST)
Greetings everyone! Welcome to CricketCountry’s live coverage of the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) . This is Match No. 7 between Dindigul Dragons and Ruby Kanchi Warriors. The match will be played at the beautiful MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai. Ruby Kanchi warriors are coming from a victory in a tense match with Lyca Kovai Kings while Dindigul Dragons also won their last fixture by 14 runs against Madurai Super Giants. A competition between two teams who have won their previous fixtures will be an interesting one to take place at Chepauk. TNPL 2016 Schedule & Fixture: Complete Time Table, Dates, Venue & Match Timings of Tamil Nadu Premier League
In its first season, TNPL is already a hit with people coming out to watch the match in huge numbers. Big names like India’s limited-overs skipper MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Ravichandran Ashwin have been associated with the tournament to make it even more popular to the mass.
As the tournament started, Dhoni told tnca.cricket about his expectations from the tournament. “Talking about the TN Premier League you have a fresh platform, yes you have other tournaments and everything that goes around and is part of the BCCI schedule, then it goes down to the state association and how they plan everything. But this is something that is relatively new and it gives the opportunity to a fresh set of youngsters, with eight teams there is a big number of players that are needed for the league to function properly. So it gives them that opportunity too, it allows them to play in quite a different scenario. Quite a few of them would not have played night matches so far so this is an opportunity for them to get a glimpse of that.
“Not to forget this will take cricket into some of the smaller cities, you know we are quite used to playing here and there are some other places where you have grounds but some of the matches will also be played in some of the smaller cities where it will act as a promotional measure where you try to bring youngsters into cricket. I feel also what it does in the food chain is that it becomes a feeding ground for the local association which is the TNCA and also once CSK (Chennai Super Kings) gets back, it will be a feeding ground for CSK as well.”
Reported The Hindu, Dhoni started off his speech with “Yellarukum Vannakam”, which means “greetings to everyone” in the local language. He went on to say, “It will be a big opportunity for the youngsters in Tamil Nadu to take up the game. The TNPL will be a good platform for them. The State association has done so much for them. They should now give something back to the game. When they play in the TNPL, they will be encouraging kids in the districts to take to the game. They will be paying back something to cricket. They are very knowledgeable and appreciate good cricket from the visiting team too. I have come back to Chennai after nine months. This is the longest gap for me between visits to Chennai in past several years. Hopefully my next visit to the city will be much quicker.”
Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) President N Srinivasan said, “This is a big moment for Tamil Nadu cricket. The tournament will take cricket to the distant corners of the State. We will all have to wait for one more year and then the men in yellow will be back. And Dhoni will be wearing the yellow jersey.”
Squads:
Dindigul Dragons: Subramania Siva(c), Wilkins Victor, N Jagadeesan(w), Ganga Sridhar Raju, S Abishiek, Sunny Kumar Singh, VRS Guru Kedarnath, MS Sanjay, Murugan Ashwin, T Natarajan, R Vivek, Andrew Subikshan, Maan Bafna, C Madhu, Pitchaiayan Sakthi, Varun Narender, R Mihir, Edward Kennedy, Palani Amarnath
Ruby Kanchi Warriors: Baba Indrajith(c), Jagannathan Kaushik, Rangaraj Suthesh, Adithya Ganesh, B Aditya, Akkil Srinaath, Anthony Mannays, Bharath Shankar, L Ganesh, Rajamani Jesuraj, Jagatheesan Kousik, Nilesh Subramanian, Murthy Prabhu, Alagh Prathiban, Ranjan Paul, Shahrukh Khan, S Siddharth, Trilok Nag, Krishna Varun Kumar
