Photo caption:
3X8A3389.JPG: Kamlesh Mehta, Director, 11Even Sports, addresses media persons during a press conference after the MSL Players’ auction for the 3rd MSL TT Championship 2017, at the NSCI Club on Wednesday.
3X8A3455.JPG: 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.
Also attached is the team lists:.
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Nishad Shah picked for top price of Rs 38,000 by MTC Royals
Mumbai, April 26:
Nishad Shah and Divya Mahajan went for the highest bids among men and women player respectively during players' auctions held for the third edition of the Mumbai Super League (MSL) Table Tennis Championship 2017, to be 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.
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.
Around 78 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.
In the junior boys category Raegan Albuquerque went to King Pong for a top price of 18,750, while Srushti Haleangadi was picked by Top Spinners for Rs 22,500. Havish Ansari was the top earner in the cadet category going to King Pong for Rs 14,500. King Pong also bought veteran Kiran Salian for Rs 13,850.
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 will be representing the 10 teams in the MSL.
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.