KATHMANDU, Jan 5: Teams, captains and owners of the Sagarmatha Cement Dhangadhi Premier League, the first city-based auction cricket tournament, were announced on Thursday in the capital.

The T20 format tournament to be held from March 18 to April 1 in Dhangadhi featuring six teams is the highest cash prized cricket event. The winner and the runner-up will walk home with purse of Rs 1.5 million and Rs 700,000 respectively.

Kailali district, the tournament host, has two teams while Biratnagar (Morang),
Kathmandu, Rupandehai and Kanchanpur has one team each. 

National vice captain Gyanendra Malla was named the captain of CYC Attariya owned by Srijansil Youth Club and presided by Nara Bahadur Rai. 

Similarly, Sharad Vesawkar was named the captain of Biratnagar Kings owned by Mahalaxmi Cable (Paras Luniya) and co-owned by Prafull Vaidya. Basanta Regmi was drawn the captain of Kathmandu Goldens owned by Golden Gate International College (Ramesh Silwal). 

Shakti Gauchan is the captain of Rupandehi Challengers and Binod Bhandari will shoulder the role of skipper for Kanchanpur Iconic. Challangers is owned by SR Group (Suraj Upreti) and co-owned by Romit Bajracharya while Kanchanpur owned by Pitambar Joshi has multiple co-owners including Ashok Pandey, Dhiraj Bohara, Netra Raj Chataut and Laxmi Pandey.   

Team Chauraha captained by national team skipper Paras Khadka is owned by Raj Kumar Shrestha and co-owned by Surya Gurung, Shanwaj Alam, Gagan KC and Puskar Ojha. 

According to Saura Ojha, the representative of tournament organizer DCA and SPA, the captains were picked through lucky draw and will be paid Rs 150,000 as their wage. Remaining members of each team will be picked through auction from a pool of 217 players who have registered for the tournament after their classification into four categories.  

Besides captain, the base price of 14 current national players who has played at least 15 international matches has been fixed at Rs 50,000 while uncapped players have been priced at Rs 20,000. National players who have played less than 15 matches and members of the U-19 World Cup team have been priced at Rs 30,000. Similarly, base price for former U-19 national players and various age group players from U-15 to U-23 have been fixed at Rs 25,000.

“We have set spending limit of Rs 700,000 for forming each team and a team must field at least four uncapped players in the squad. The team will be announced after auction on Saturday,” said Subash Shahi, the president of DCA. “We have set compulsory provision of uncapped players with the view to groom new talents.”

Speaking on behalf of captains, national team skipper Paras Khadka said that investment by owners was the result of their love to the game. “Hosting such kind of tournament is a challenge for other cities. Such tournament will motivate players to perform better with more interest,” Paras said. 

National cricket team coach Jagat Tamata said that the tournament was a big platform for cricketers and wished for success of the tournament. “I want to see such tournaments in all five regions of the country. It is also a challenge for organizer to successfully hold the event,” he shared. 

Romit Bajracharya, co-owner of the Rupandehi Challangers, said that Nepal's performance at the international stage despite limited resources had prompted for their involvement in cricket. 

Each team consists of 15 members and a coach. The tournament will be played in round robin league format in the first phase and the top four finishers will book place for the playoff rounds. 

The top two teams will vie in the playoff rounds and the winner will book ticket for final. The losing side among them will take on the winner among the third and fourth place finisher of playoff for entry into the final.     

Besides the lucrative cash prize for winners, the man-of-the-series will be given a motorbike and the man-of-the-match of each game will be rewarded with Rs 10,000 each. The total cash prize is Rs 2.85 million and the expected cost of the tournament is Rs 16 million.

 
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