MUMBAI: Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) Saturday organized the player auction for the second edition of the T20 Mumbai League.
The 2019 edition witnessed 155 players picked up by the eight franchises that will compete for the title. The league is to be held from 14–26 May at the Wankhede stadium.
From a total budget of Rs 28 million, the 8 teams – Mumbai North East Triumph Knights, Shivaji Park Lions, ARCS Andheri, North Mumbai Panthers, NaMo Bandra Blasters, SoBo Supersonics, along with the newly inducted teams, Eagle Thane Strikers (Mumbai Eastern Suburbs) and Aakash Tigers Mumbai Western Suburbs – collectively spent Rs 27.3 million.
Before the player auction, the 6 continuing teams of season 1, retained 11 players.
Each franchisee had to form a squad comprising a maximum of 20 players and a minimum of 18 players and they were committed to spend a maximum of Rs 3.5 million and a minimum of Rs 3 million on its squad.
The auction consisted of three categories of players – senior players, emerging players, and developmental players. Senior players are those that have represented Mumbai in a First Class Trophy/List A/T20 match, whereas emerging players are players who have played from Mumbai in other national domestic tournaments in the U-19 or U-23 age groups. The developmental players comprise of players who have represented any MCA affiliated club or team.
The base price for senior players, emerging players, and developmental players was Rs 100,000, Rs 75,000 and Rs 50,000 respectively.
The player regulations for the league made it mandatory for each team to include a minimum of four senior players, and a minimum aggregate of four players from emerging players and developmental players category in the squad.
The maximum that any team could bid for a senior player was capped at Rs 500,000, while the cap was Rs 500,000 for the other categories.
The 6 continuing teams had the Right to Match (RTM) the bid for a player that had played with them in the debut season. The 2 new teams, meanwhile, had the Opportunity to Match (OTM) the bid for any player that had not played for any team in the 2018 edition that they may want to include in their squad.
Key figures from the T20 Mumbai League 2019 Player Auction
· Players sold: 140
· players retained & drafted: 15
· Money spent: Rs 27.3 million
· Senior players sold: 41
· Emerging & developmental players sold: 114
· Players retained by six teams: 11
Match schedule
MCA Monday announced the match schedule of the 2nd edition of T20 Mumbai League to be held from 14th to 26th May 2019 at the iconic Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. This year will witness a total of 23 matches across 13 days between 8 teams, with double-headers every day in the league stage.
The eight teams have been drawn into two groups, Group A and Group B. Each team will play the teams in their respective group once, in addition to 2 intra-group matches drawn by lots, making it a total of 5 matches per team in the league stage.
Group A
1. Aakash Tigers MWS
2. Triumph Knights MNE
3. Eagle Thane Strikers
4. North Mumbai Panthers
Group B
5.SoBo SuperSonics
6. Shivaji Park Lions
7. NaMo Bandra Blasters
8. ARCS Andheri
All matches will be screened live on Star Sports 3, and Star Sports 1 Marathi including a few matches to be aired on Star Sports 2 & Star Sports 2 HD in addition to live streaming on Hotstar.
Tickets became available on Bookmyshow.com from 5th May.
