By IANS
New Delhi : Delhi’s Indian Premier League (IPL) team name Daredevils and logo were unveiled by the franchise holder and infrastructure major GMR Holdings here Tuesday.
After a citywide SMS campaign, Daredevils was chosen as the name of the team for the multi million dollar Twenty20 tournament starting April 18.
The logo is a fast moving cricket ball emitting fire with Delhi Daredevils written in bold red on the fiery tail of what looks a bit like a comet.
Greg Shipperd, coach of national title-winning Victoria state in Australia, and his assistant David Sacker have been appointed coach and assistant-cum-trainer of the Daredevils.
Though GMR officials kept their cards close to their chest when asked about the players they are targeting in Wednesday’s player auction in Mumbai, the company said it has asked the IPL governing council to add Virender Sehwag in the iconic players’ category so that they don’t have to bid for him and can most likely name him captain.
“Virender Sehwag is the star of Delhi and we have requested the IPL governing council to name him an iconic player. We are waiting for the decision to come so that we don’t have to bid for him,” said GMR CEO Yogesh Shetty.
IPL governing council member Rajeev Shukla, also secretary of the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association, said they would support the move.
“We are going to support the move in the governing council to make Sehwag an iconic player,” he said.
Shetty said that he would be looking at a very balanced team that can become the core of the Daredevils for the coming years as well.
“We can’t talk about the constitution of the team and who are the players we are looking for because it is an open auction tomorrow and there are many dynamics involved. There is a range of $3.3 million to $5 million that we can spend to buy the players and we will have to see that we get a balanced side,” Shetty said.
Delhi’s under-19 players Virat Kohli and Pradeep Sangwan, Uttar Pradesh’s Tanmay Srivastav and Praveen kumar along with Delhi’s Ranji players like Rajat Bhatia, Shikhar Dhawan and Mithun Manhas are the players Daredevils would be looking at, said former India pacer T.A. Sekar, who is heading the cricket operations of the franchise.
“We have a good variety to choose from. The team’s likely catchments areas are Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh and Delhi and Uttar Pradesh have played the Ranji Trophy final this year so we have choices. We will have the first options to pick these players,” Sekar said.
IPL COO Sunder Raman, who was present on the occasion, said the tournament is unique.
“IPL is the largest cricketing tournament to be held in the world. Intense cricketing action will be seen in 59 matches to be held at nine venues in floodlit stadiums in 44 days and it will be packaged with entertainment,” he said.
Delhi Daredevils will play their first game against Jaipur at Kotla April 19. The team will then travel to Hyderabad April 22 to play the hosts. They will next play the Mohali team April 27 and will clash with Vijay Mallaya-owned Bangalore at home April 30. Delhi will square up for away-matches against Chennai May 2 and Mumbai May 5.
GMR has lent the Delhi and District Cricket Association the money needed to install floodlights at the Kotla. All IPL matches will be held late in the evenings.
B. Vachi, a senior director of GMR, said the group is excited to make their first foray into sports.
“We are already making a world class airport in Delhi and now with the medium of cricket we can connect with the people of Delhi. It is a great opportunity to combine entertainment with cricket,” he said.
“We want to create a winning team that will be remembered in the coming years as the Manchester United of cricket.”