TNPL 2018: Prize money, venues, squads, schedule and telecast

The 2018 TNPL is set to get underway in a day's time and a lot is at stake for the teams that are taking part in the tournament. The tournament, which will begin its third edition from July 11, has unearthed a lot of talents from the state over the last two years.

The likes of Indian all-rounder Washington Sundar, Chennai Super Kings wicketkeeper and IPL winner N Jagadeesan, Sunrisers Hyderabad pacer T Natarajan, left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore, all-rounder S Harish Kumar etc. made a name for themselves in the TNPL.

Yet again, a lot of new players will give their 100% and showcase their talent in a bid to make further progress in their cricket career.

Let us take a look at a few things that you need to know ahead of the tournament.

Duration: The tournament will get underway on July 11 and will go on till August 12. A total of 32 matches will be played across three different venues in Tamil Nadu.

Format: The eight teams in the tournament will first play each other in a round-robin format. Each win will get the teams two points and the top-4 teams in the points table will qualify for the knockouts. Just like the IPL, the knockouts will have two qualifiers and one eliminator before the final.

Prize money: The winner of the tournament will take home a prize money of Rs 1 crore while the runner-up will be richer by Rs 60 lakh. The losing semi-finalists will receive Rs 40 lakh each and the remaining participants will get Rs 25 lakh.

Telecast: All the matches will be telecast on Star Sports 1 and Star Sports HD1 in English commentary. For Tamil commentary, the matches will be telecast on Star Sports Tamil. You can also follow the live coverage of all the matches on Sportskeeda.

Venues: As mentioned earlier, the 32 matches in the 2018 edition will be played in three different venues across Tamil Nadu. The picturesque NPR college ground in Natham, Dindigul, ICL ground in Tirunelveli and the historic MA Chidambaram stadium aka Chepauk in Chennai will be hosting the matches.

Schedule: You can find the full schedule of the 2018 TNPL here.

Team changes from last year

Former India coach S Badrinath will coach iDream Karaikudi Kaalai in the 2018 TNPL

Just like the first two years, there will be as many as eight teams taking part in the tournament but there are few changes expected in each of the teams.

Jones Tuti Patriots: Tuti Patriots have changed their name from Albert Tuti Patriots to Jones Tuti Patriots because of the change in ownership. They have also appointed former Tamil Nadu batsman R Prasanna as their head coach.

Chepauk Super Gillies: No changes from last year.

VB Kanchi Veerans: Formerly known as VB Thiruvallur Veerans, the franchise have shifted their base from Thiruvallur to Kanchipuram, thus changing their name accordingly.

Ruby Trichy Warriors: Trichy have appointed former India pacer Tinu Youhanan as their coach ahead of the 2018 season.

Lyca Kovai Kings: They have roped in the experienced coaching trio of Monty Desai, JR Madanagopal and Gokulakrishnan as their new support staff. The trio was very instrumental in making Tuti Patriots the most successful TNPL team over the first two seasons.

iDream Karaikudi Kaalai: Kaalai have renamed themselves iDream Karaikudi Kaalai, thanks to their new ownership. Adding to this, they have appointed their former captain S Badrinath as their new coach.

Dindigul Dragons: No changes from last year.

Siechem Madurai Panthers: Madurai Panthers have changed their name from Madurai Supergiant because of the new ownership. Former India stumper Bharath Reddy was appointed as the coach of the franchise ahead of the tournament.

International players in action

As many as six international players will take part in the tournament along with a lot of youngsters who will be aspiring to play for the country one day.

Test specialists Murali Vijay and Abhinav Mukund, all-rounders Vijay Shankar and Washington Sundar, wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik and spinner R Ashwin are the Indian internationals who will be taking part in the tournament at various stages depending on their availability.

Interacting and sharing the same dressing room with these stars will help the youngsters progress to the next level.

Squads

Dinesh Karthik will turn up for a new TNPL team

Tuti Patriots - Washington Sundar, Kaushik Gandhi, Sai Kishor R, R.Sathish, Athisayaraj Davidson.V, Akshay Srinivasan, Malolan Rangarajan, Ashith Rajiv, U.Sushil, Dinesh S, Abishiek S, Venkatesh A, Nidish S, R Jesuraj, S Boopalan, S Shubham Mehta, Anand Subramanian, Akash Sumra and Ganesh Moorthy.

Chepauk Super Gillies - Vijay Shankar, Gopinath KH, M.Ashwin, Harish Kumar.S, Ganga Sridhar Raju, Sunny Kumar Singh, Samruddh Bhat, Arun Kumar V, Vishaal R, Rahul B, Siddharth M, Arun B, Aarif A, MK Sivakumar, Manav Parakh, B Sai Sudharsan, S Karthik, U Sasidev and RK Alexander.

Lyca Kovai Kings - Anthony Das, Natarajan T, Abhinav Mukund, K.Vignesh, Shahrukh Khan M, Akkil Srinaath, Suresh Kumar J, Mithun R, Suresh Babu, Sumant Jain, Rajesh MP, Ashwin Venkataraman, M Raja, R Sathyanarayan, Mohammed Adnan Khan, S Manikandan, Rohith Ravikumar, Pradosh Ranjan Paul and S Ajith Ram.

Siechem Madurai Panthers - Varun CV, Abhishek Tanwar, Rahil Shah, Thalaivan Sargunam.X, Kousik J, Jagannath RS, Nilesh S, Rohit D, S.P Nathan, Tushar Raheja, Kiran Akash L, Lokesh Raj T.D, SS Karnavar, Vikkram Jangid, MS Promoth, PS Shivaramakrishnan, KB Arun Karthik, Shijit Chandran and R Karthikeyan.

Ruby Trichy Warriors - B Indrajith, Bharath Shankar and K Vignesh, Sonu Yadav, Sanjay MS, Murali Vijay, C.Ganapathi, Suresh Kumar S, Vasanth Saravanan, Aravind S, Lakshminarayanan M, Vignesh L, Chandrasekar D.T, Aswin Crist A, Mani Bharathy K, Saravana Kumar P, AS Govinda Raajan, RS Thillak, V Aakash.

VB Kanchi Veerans - Lokeshwar S, Vishal Vaidhya. K, Aushik Srinivas R, Subramania Siva, Mukilesh U, Sunil Sam, S Arun, Deeban Lingesh K, Francis Rokins P, Siddharth S, Divakar R, Mokit Hariharan, S Chandrasekhar, S Ashwath, U Vishal, Shriram C, Baba Aparajith)

Dindigul Dragons - R Ashwin, N Jagadeesan, R Vivek, Chaturved N.S, Hari Nishaanth C, Anirudh Sita Ram.B, Mohammed M, Rohit R, Adithya Arun, Abhinav M, Silambarasan, Trilok Nag, Yazh Arun Mozhi, Sujendran M, Kaushik J, N Ramakrishnan, Ra Aravind, Nivethan Radhakrishnan, Varun M Totatri.

iDream Karaikudi Kaalai - Dinesh Karthik, Aniruda.S, V. Yo Mahesh, R Kavin, L Suryap Prakash, Lakshman, Aaditya.V, Kishan Kumar S, Radhakrishnan, Maan K Bafna, Ashwath Mukunthan, Swaminathan. S, Ajith Kumar T, S Ganesh, R Srinivasan, P Murugesh, R Rajkumar, M Shajahan and S Mohan Prasath.