30 ex-cricketers shortlisted for UPPL jobs
Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association’s first-ever official league starts on August 30 at the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur.
The maiden edition of the Uttar Pradesh Premier League (UPPL), starting August 30 in Kanpur, is all set to give opportunities to many former cricketers of the state to earn money as well as a reputation as the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association has identified 30 former cricketers for various jobs.
Among the 30, many have already earned coaching certificates from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). A few others have the coaching experience of many teams, including the Ranji Trophy side. The six-team franchise event will also give opportunities to homegrown people like physios, yoga experts, masseurs etc, to work with the teams.
“At least for this season, we have made it mandatory for all the six teams to have homegrown people in the form of coaches, mentors, physios etc. We have already shortlisted 30 former cricketers who would be associated with six different teams in different capacities,” said a key functionary of UPCA on condition of anonymity on Friday.
“We aren’t sure about the teams roping in outsiders for their teams for the next season as they will have the opportunity to do it in their own way. We chose to have homegrown persons for all six teams as we are short of time this time,” he said, adding, “We hope that best performers in the first season would stay with the teams in the next season too.”
On average, a team will have five out of these 30 former cricketers as coach, assistant coach, batting coach, bowling coach and fielding coach. “This will be a good opportunity for these former cricketers to work alongside youngsters in the team and will also be getting money as well as reputation too,” the official added.
As per the official, former cricketers like Test offie Gopal Sharma, Rahul Sapru, Gyanendra Pandey, Rizwan Shamshad, Ashish Winston Zaidi, Satish Kesarwani, Obaid Kamal, Moosi Raza etc., have been shortlisted for the jobs of mentors, coaches and other positions. Besides them, many former junior India stars would be roped in for the teams. Suresh Raina has also agreed to be the ‘Brand Ambassador’ of the UPPL.
The players’ auction will be held on Sunday here in Lucknow. Six franchises from Lucknow, Meerut, Noida, Varanasi, Kanpur and Gorakhpur will have to pick 20 players from the pool of the players and they can have the remaining five on their own.
“It’s mandatory for all the franchises to pick 20 players from the pool, whereas the remaining five they can choose on their own,” said a UPPL management committee member.
In the players auction, cricketers like Team India discard Bhuvneshwar Kumar, stylish batter Rinku Singh, Shivam Mavi, Priyam Garg, Kartik Tyagi, Mohsin Khan, Dhruv Jurel and Karan Sharma are expected to be sold like hot cakes as their experience of playing in the Indian Premier League for the last many years would give them an edge.
“This league is a great opportunity for everyone in the state to prove his worth as a cricketer, a coach, mentor, manager etc., and I am thankful to UPCA, which has taken this initiative for both the former as well as present lot of cricketers in the state,” said Gyanendra Pandey, former UP Ranji Trophy captain and coach on Friday.
“Youngsters will get to rise through the ranks in the state teams. For instance, if a junior performs extraordinarily well, he will have a chance to make it to the Ranji Trophy team. At the same time, if a team does well under a former cricketer as coach, he will have chance to become coach of any team in the state,” said Pandey, who is also a junior national selector.
Meanwhile, the Lucknow team owned jointly by the Ekana Sportz City Private Limited and GC Construction and Development Industries Private Limited at a hefty amount of ₹6 crores per year has named its team as ‘Lucknow Falcon’.
