Karnataka State Cricket Association felicitates players selected for India A

Karnataka State Cricket Association felicitates players selected for India A: Mysore, September 11, 2015: At a function on Friday in Mysore, the Karnataka State Cricket Association felicitated the six players who will be a part of the India A team, for the series against Bangladesh A to be held in September. Sreenath Arvind, Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair and Manish Pandey have been selected in the India A team for the three one-day matches to be held in Bangalore and Abhimanyu Mithun, Shreyas Gopal and Karun Nair for the three-day match in Bangalore.

Mysore will host the second phase of the Karbonn Smart Karnataka Premier League from September 12 to 20 with each of the eight teams completing the rest of their three league matches. The Qualifier 1 and Eliminator will be played on September 18, the Qualifier 2 on September 19 and the grand Finale on Sunday, September 20.

With an exciting first leg of the the Karbonn Smart Karnataka Premier League (KPL) 2015 in Hubballi, the second leg in Mysore promises to be even more thrilling with several of the teams evenly matched and battling for a berth in the Qualifiers.

“The tournament is poised at an interesting stage and we expect even more thrilling encounters in Mysore. There have been several new names like Sadiq Kirmani, Arjun Hoysala, Prasidh Krishna and Bhavesh Gulecha discovered this season and the League is being keenly followed by several talent scouts from the IPL. The KPL offers youngsters great visibility and also the experience of playing under lights, under pressure, in front of big crowds and against quality opposition”, said Mr. PR Ashok Anand, Hon. President, KSCA while welcoming the gathering.

Talking of the Late Maharaja’s vision he said, “It was the Late Maharaja’s ambition to see more and more players from the State of Karnataka play the game at the National and International level”.

He also thanked all people with stakes in the KPL and the media for their unstinted support for the League.

Mr. Sudhakar Rao, Vice President, KSCA, felicitated the six players and applauded their efforts and consistent performance. “We are very proud that Sreenath Arvind, Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair, Abhimanyu Mithun, Shreyas Gopal and Manish Pandey have been selected in the India A team for the matches to be held in Bangalore. The six of them have been picked for their outstanding performance over the last two years in domestic cricket,” he said.

Also speaking on the occasion, R Vinay Kumar, successful skipper of the Karnataka Ranji Team said of the KPL, “The League has certainly gone up to the next level. You can see the intensity amongst teams and players has gone up by 200% from last year. The platform the league offers youngsters is tremendous and the benefits are phenomenal. I hope the tournament grows and gets bigger and better as the years go by”.

The KSCA has associated with the Kalisu Foundation to support education of 100 government school children through the year. This association will ensure that the government school children get quality education in English, Life skills, Maths, Personality Development and sports lessons through Kalisu Foundation. The Kalisu Foundation is an NGO working to improve the quality of education in Government schools and orphanages and currently operating in 6 centers in Mysore.

Mr. Balachandar, Convenor, KSCA, Mysore Zone, said, “The KSCA is very happy and committed to promote sports and create an opportunity for children to watch some of their cricketing heroes  in action. To ensure government schools and physically challenged kids participate, the KSCA has allocated special seating, through Outer Gate 2 (Inner gate 5). School children (in uniform and with an ID card) can enter the stands through Outer Gate 3 (Inner gate 6) and they will be able to watch the cricketing action free of cost”.

“We are also very happy to have Nikin Jose, from the Mysore Zone playing with the Mysuru Warriors during the Karbonn Smart KPL this year,” he added.

Speaking to the media at Mysore, Mr Vinay Mruthyunjaya, Managing Committee Member and Official Spokesperson, KSCA, said, “This year, the KPL is furthering its reach and is being introduced to the cricket loving audience of USA. We are very happy to announce that the matches will be telecast live in the USA on Willow TV. The KPL will also be streamed live on popular cricket portal CricketNext.com, which is a part of the Network 18 group.”

“Apart from this, we have invited around 100 children to initiate them to Kwik Cricket (A learning model for kids, with plastic bats and ball) and this will be conducted by UNIBIC and Moonwalker before the start of the first match each day,” he said.

The only channel in the US and Canada that carries cricket round the clock, Willow TV reaches homes of millions of South Asian viewers. This is the first year that Willow TV, a linear 24×7 HD Television channel dedicated to cricket, will be covering the KPL. The Willow broadcast of the Karbonn Smart KPL 2015 will reach millions of dedicated cricket fans in the USA across Television and Digital platforms.