The Indian Weekender, 9 April 2021

8 NEW ZEALAND
Friday, April 9, 2021
The Indian Weekender
Cricket: Team Chennai wins in style first ever
Tamil Nadu Premier League held in Auckland
SANDEEP SINGH
If the goal of creating Tamil Nadu Premier
League in Auckland, imitating the muchtouted
Indian Premier League, was to
recreate the energy, passion, and showbiz in
the local community level cricket, then it was
clearly visible to some extent in the final match
on Sunday, April 4, which saw Team Chennai
winning over Team Trichy in style.
The three-day cricketing tournament held
over the Easter long weekend (April 2, 3, 4)
witnessed a classy final played between the two
teams where Team Trichy posed a competitive
total of 197 in 20 hours, but the team Chennai
romped home only in 17th over with few
wickets intact.
Organised under the aegis of Kumeu Cricket
Club, TN Premier League 2021 was the first
of its kind cricket tournament for the Tamil
community in Auckland, which literally
followed every step of the famous Indian
Premier League right from team formation,
players bidding & auction, sponsorship and
matches.
Speaking to the Indian Weekender,
Maheshwaran Shanmugam, the organiser who
single handily conceptualised and organised the
League, expressed satisfaction with the interest
received in the concept of the tournament and
the support received from sponsors and the
members of the community.
“I had been sitting on this idea of organising
an IPL style tournament for members of Tamil
community in Auckland for quite some time,
but the real work began about two months ago
when I began discussing the idea with some of
sponsors and supporters.”
“While the overall goal of this sporting event
for the Tamil community youths was to harness
positivity and unity via sports, the IPL style
league generated more passion and enthusiasm
amongst one and all.”
“I have already received interest from the
Tamil community in Wellington and Dunedin
to plan something similar,” Maheshwaran said
excitedly.
Building upon enthusiasm within the Tamil
community in Auckland, the organisers
had reined in Kiwi-Indian youth sensation
Adithya Ashok – the budding cricketer who
has represented the New Zealand U19 team in
the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup held in South
Africa in January 2020, as one of the main
guests at the finals.
Highlights of the three-day tournament
A total of nine matches (20 overs) were
played over the span of three days (Friday,
Saturday, Sunday), with six matches in roundrobin
deciding the position of each team in
the table, and followed by one qualifier, one
eliminator and one final match.
Finals was a high scoring encounter, with
Trichy batted first, scoring 197 in 20 overs with
their skipper Hari scoring 82 of 33 balls and
supported by Sagar with 50 and two wickets.
However, Mohan from Chennai scored a
match-winning knock of 83 from 32 balls
and leading Chennai to finish the match in
the 17th over.
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my friends,” Maheshwaran said.
“Given that it was a short notice for the
inaugural tournament, we finalised to have four
teams and named them on four major cities of
Tamil Nadu – Chennai, Madurai, Tiruchirappalli
and Coimbatore,” Maheshwaran said.
“Once the name of teams was finalised, I
advertised them on WhatsApp and Facebook
and soon got sponsors on board buying each
team for $750, who were allowed to choose
captains of their respective teams.”
“Subsequently, players who have registered
(and paid $25) to participate in the tournament
were made available for auction, which began
with a base price of each player at $20 and
could go up to $120,” Maheswaran said.
Speaking more about the experience of
setting up IPL style tournament, especially
among players and sponsors, Maheshwaran
said, “It was thoroughly an exhilarating
experience for everyone, including players,
Pradeep Chakravarthy (Madurai Captain)
was adjudged “Player of the tournament”
with 150 plus runs and five wickets in the
tournament, winning a $100 voucher and a
medal.
Mohan Rathnakumar (Chennai) was
“Batsman of the tournament”, scoring 202
runs, while Adarsh Ramasubramanian was
adjudged “Bowler of the tournament”, picking
up 12 wickets, including six wickets haul in
one single match. Both players received $50
vouchers.
The winning Chennai team took the $750
prize while the runners up Trichhy team took
home the $500 prize.
In all, it was an exhilarating tournament
with some generous support from sponsors,
including Alayam Thiru Murugan temple
(Mangere), sponsoring around 100 lunch packs
for teams and guests attending the finals on
Sunday, April 4.