KSCA's Maharaja Trophy T20 tournament leaves players confused

The Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) has revamped its T20 League as Maharaja T20 League, but the players are confused as the association themselves aims to control the tournament and teams.

The six teams in the tournament will only have sponsors and no separate franchises or owners. The KSCA have brought out a new model after the KPL had resulted in unwarranted hiatus owing to match-fixing and also led to arrests of a few players and one team owner.

The association has decided to divide the players themselves, amongst the six teams based on six zones. As a result, the salary for the players will also be fixed based on their grades.

“This year onwards we have thought of a new model. A new model where we have team sponsors and not team owners. It's not the franchisee model,” said KSCA Secretary Santosh Menon at the inauguration of the tournament.

The players will be divided into four grades.

Grade A will include India and IPL players with a salary of ₹ 5 lakh. Grade B will include State players who have featured in only one of the senior tournaments (Ranji Trophy/ Vijay Hazare Trophy/ Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy) and paid ₹ 2 lakh. Other players who have played various age group tournaments (u-19/ u-23) will feature in Grade C with compensation of ₹ 1 lakh. And Grade D comprising emerging talent will earn ₹ 50,000.

Karnataka Premier League back as Maharaja Trophy KSCA T20. Draft policy to determine the team composition with Stuart Binny, Mansur Ali Khan, Nasir, Nikhil Haldipur, Deepak Chougle and PV Shashikanth to be head coaches.

— Manuja (@manujaveerappa) July 16, 2022

However, the prospect of KSCA owning all the teams and the salary caps has baffled several state players.

Karnataka Ranji Trophy batter Krishnamurthy Siddharth believes that the players would earn a lot more had the franchise model been in place and auctions would have been held.

“There are players who have not played Ranji Trophy but, still they have gone for more money than the players who have played, to be honest. There are really good T20 players [in Karnataka], who would have gone for a really big amount if auctions had taken place,” Siddharth told Firstpost.

“There are so many players who actually depend on KPL [now Maharaja Trophy T20] for their earnings. This will be a big blow for them. To be honest, they could have like increased the amount for the players who have not played much because all these IPL and Indian players anyway earn in crores,” Siddharth further explained talking about the players grouped in categories C and D.

The KSCA have also distributed the coaching staff and other administrative staff among the six teams. However, the players are not aware of the team they will play for.

“We don't know how they're going to make the team, what the teams will be. Because this is the first time something like this is happening. None of us have much idea about how the teams are going to be divided,” Siddharth said.

Karnataka Ranji Trophy bowler BR Sharath expressed similar views to Firstpost. “There might be some [conflict of interest]. But as long as opportunities are concerned, I don’t think there will be a problem. For whoever gets to play, will get a place to prove themselves. Regarding how it will run and how players will be selected, I have no idea about that.”

The players, however, were delighted that they will be featuring in a state-level T20 tournament after three years and this might open the IPL window for them.

“We missed this tournament for a long time now, three-four years. It gives us a great platform to represent in IPL. And if we do well, we get recognition and all that. So it’s a very good tournament for us and we have not played for two years now so really excited to get back,” Sharath said.

Siddharth echoed the views. “I think it's a good thing that KSCA has got this tournament back. Overlooking everything [why KPL was suspended] and bringing back the tournament I think, is really good for other players. And I think a lot of players have gone up to play IPL by doing well in KPL tournaments. Because it’s live on Star Sports which is like a worldwide channel, it's great exposure for all the players."

The tournament is scheduled from 7 August to 26 August with each team playing the other team once before the top four teams qualify for play-offs.

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