Till now, we had only heard about some cricketers being picked up by IPL teams for top price running into huge amount during auction. Then, we noticed some Footballers being picked up for a good price during their Football league, followed by Badminton players brought for huge amount during Indian badminton League held in India. Now, why should our table tennis players just wait for their turn?
Kamlesh Mehta, Director, 11Even Sports, is seen along with the owners of the 10 teams that will be participating in the 3rd MSL TT Championship 2017, at the NSCI Club on Wednesday.( Photo: Prasad Naik)
The Mumbai Super League, which is in its 3rd year, has picked up very well now. That’s what the auction of around 78 players from six categories indicated clearly. These players from six categories (men, women, junior boys, junior girls, cadet boys and veterans) went under the hammer as 10 franchise-based teams picked their teams at the NSCI on Wednesday afternoon. The auction was organized by 11Even Sports, under the auspices of the MCDTTA and MSDTTA and to be played at the NSCI, Worli from June 8-11, 2017.
Young Nishad Shah was picked for top price of Rs 38,000 by MTC Royals. Actually, both Nishad Shah and Divya Mahajan went for the highest bids among men and women player respectively.MTC Royals picked up Shah for Rs 38,000, which was much over his base price of Rs 14,500, while Mahajan, whose base price was Rs 12,350 was purchased by Top Spinners for Rs 26,350.
The Final List after the auction
India No. 1 and Women’s National champion Madhurika Patkar, former Men’s National champion Sanil Shetty, current Sub-Junior National Champion Diya Chitale and several other leading tables tennis players were retained by their last year’s team owners the , as they were allowed to retain their one player from among 6 in the team.
Kamlesh Mehta, Director, 11Even Sports praised the team owners for their participation and NSCI for providing the venue to conduct the MSL. “This event started on a small scale and initially it was just like an experiment. But with support from all quarters this event has taken shape and we would like to take it further. I would like to thank NSCI for giving us the support to hold this event at their premises and I’m also confident that we (MSL) will grow with the support from the team owners,” said Mehta at the media briefing post the auction.
Manish Bhansali, Chairman, NSCI said “The MSL is an initiative which is commendable. Sports other than cricket needs to be nurtured and encouraged so that the standard of the sport goes up and reaches international level. We (NSCI) are happy to be associated with the MSL and that such a sport is being organized at our club.”
The 10 teams have been divided into 2 groups of 5 each. Each team will play all other teams in their respective group once and the top 2 teams from each group will qualify for the Semi-Finals and the winners will play the Finals.
Each match will consist of 9 rubbers and all the 9 matches have to be played in the group stage as each rubber win has points. The men player will play 3 matches (1 singles & 2 doubles), women will play 2 matches (1 Singles & 1 doubles), Junior Boys – 2 matches (1 singles & 1 doubles), Junior Girls – 2 matches (1 singles & 1 doubles), Cadet Boys – 1 match (1 singles), Veterans – 2 matches (1 singles & 1 doubles).
The MSL offers handsome prize-money to the winning teams, with the Champions standing to take away Rs. 1,80,000 while the runners- up will receive Rs 1,20,000. The teams which finish 3rd & 4th will receive cash awards of Rs 70,000 and Rs 50,000 respectively. In addition the winners will be presented with Trophies.
The groupings:
Group-A: King Pong, The Top Spinners, Supreme Fighters, ACE, MTC Royals.
Group-B: High Tide, Kool Smashers, Blazing Bashers, Phantom Stars, Century Warriors.