CCL 2024: Karnataka Bulldozers skipper Pradeep says, ‘Ee sala cup namde’

Responding to a ‘let one of the north teams win’ suggestion from CCL founder Vishnu Vardhan Induri, Karnataka Bulldozers captain Pradeep said that his team is looking at winning in 2024

File image of Skipper Pradeep (centre) from CCL 2023

In the 9 editions of the Celebrity Cricket League, the championship has been won by a team from the south in a whopping 8 times so far. The Chennai Rhinos have won twice, as have the Karnataka Bulldozers, while the Telugu Warriors have taken it home four times. Only in 2019 was there a change, when the Mumbai Heroes beat the Karnataka Bulldozers to win the title. In these nine finals, the Kerala Strikers team was runner-up twice, which is an indication of how south skewed the event has been so far.

CCL founder Vishnu Vardhan Induri is hopeful that there will be a change this time around and that a team from the north can lift the trophy. In fact, last year, the Bhojpuri Dabanggs came tantalizingly close to doing so, winning all their matches en route to the finale and then succumbing to the Telugu Warriors. At a recent event to launch the team jersey of the Karnataka Bulldozers, Vishnu had said jokingly that perhaps 2024 should have a north team winning the tournament.

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Karnataka Bulldozers skipper Pradeep, though, said that his team is in no mood to let go of the opportunity of another win. “Ee sala cup named”, was pretty much what each member of the team, including Darling Krishna, J Karthik, Rajeev Hannu and Suneel Raoh, among others, had to say. In fact, in 2023, the Karnataka Bulldozers crashed out at semi-final stage, which was not a result they were expecting and, hence, they will look at remedying it this time.

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In 2023, the Sandalwood team had just come off a hectic cricket schedule for the Kannada Chalanachitra Cup (KCC), a tournament that most key CCL players were a part of. KCC was done and dusted in December, so the team has had a more relaxed training schedule for CCL and is raring to give their opponents a run for their money.

The Karnataka Bulldozers will play their first match on February 25 at 6.30 pm, when they take on the Mumbai Heroes in Sharjah. The 10thedition of CCL starts on February 23, with the first weekend seeing all eight teams in action. The matches will be telecast on Sony Sports Ten 5, with JioCinema filling in as streaming partner. Regional telecast partner is Star Network in the south.

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