4 reasons why you should watch the KPL

The KPL fourth edition begins on September 2

The fourth edition of the Karnataka Premier League will kick-off in a week’s time with a promise of a bigger and better tournament. The matches will be played at Hubli and Mysore and will feature an addition team, Namma Shivamogga, taking the total teams to eight. Here are four reasons why you should watch the KPL.

1. Karnataka are the domestic treble winners for the last two seasons

Karnataka has traditionally been one of the strongest teams in Indian domestic cricket having won the Ranji Trophy eight times and finishing runners-up on six occasions. Two of those title triumphs have come in the last two years ans along with success in the Vijay Hazare trophy and Irani trophy, they are undoubtedly the top team at present having won the domestic treble in the last two seasons.

It is safe to assume that the exposure which many of these players have got in the KPL has had a major influence in their recent success.

2. Karnataka contributed 15 players to the various franchises in IPL 2015

The state had as many as 15 players representing the various franchises in IPL 2015. It includes KL Rahul, who was the leading scorer in the third edition of the KPL, all-rounder Stuart Binny and Karun Nair who are currently part of the Indian Test team that is touring Sri Lanka. Robin Uthappa and Manish Pandey was part of the Indian ODI squad that toured Zimbabwe recently.

There are other promising youngsters like Mayank Agarwal who was the Man of the Series in the recently concluded tri-series that featured the A sides of India, Australia and South Africa, the spin trio of J Suchith, KC Cariappa and Shreyas Gopal as well as Abhimanyu Mithun.

So with such a wealth of talent on display, why would you not want to watch the best players of the state fighting it out against each other.

3. KPL is the first and only domestic league which features a film actors team competing against professional teams

The KPL is the only domestic league in the country that pitches a team of film stars amongst professional cricket teams. They failed to win any of their matches last season but will be hopeful of doing much better this time around having added former cricketers Sunil Joshi, Venkatesh Prasad and David Johnson to their ranks.

4. KPL is highly competitive

The first three editions of the KPL has seen three different champions with Bangalore Provident winning the debut season in 2009, Mangalore United in 2010 and Mysuru Warriors emerging champions in 2014. So why would you want to miss such a highly competitive league?