The second season of the Tamil Nadu Premium League in Auckland has grown bigger in size attracting more participation from players, sponsors, and community support.
Held in less than ten months after the season one that was held in March-April last year, imitating the famed Indian Premium League – one of the biggest sporting bonanzas of the cricketing world - the TNPL was successful this year in bringing more teams in the draw, more sponsors on the table and more spectators on the ground.
Organised under the aegis of Kumeu Cricket Club, TN Premier League 2021 this year, the tournament grew with seven teams in the fray (as opposed to four last year), requiring the tournament to be stretched over to eight weeks with several matches played over the weekends.
The finals were played on Sunday, February 13, between the new entrant Team Madurai Maveerargal and team Tiruvallur Titans, considered by many as an underdog, where the former defeated the latter in an evenly contested match.
Sharing the excitement on the success of TNPL and its growing support within the community Maheshwaran Shanmugam, the League's organiser, said," Indeed this is a matter of immense satisfaction as the League is getting such a great reception within our community."
"This year, not only we had more teams and more numbers of players in the contest, but also more sponsorship and more audience support on the ground who turned out with great enthusiasm in every match to shout for their teams and players," Maheshwaran said.
"Each team had more than two sponsors, which means there were more resources at their disposal to go after the players they wanted for their line-up in the auction, which essentially forms the part of excitement package that comes with the original IPL in India," Maheshwaran added.
Notably, the TNPL followed the same procedure as followed in the last year's edition – with players registering themselves (with a nominal fee) and then making themselves available for auction, which began at a base price for each player and eventually going-up depending on the demand as in the original IPL.
Local Minister from Tamil Nadu government joins over zoom
The excitement quotient for season two of Tamil Nadu Premium League was further elevated with Milk & Dairy Development Minister in Tamil Nadu government, Nasar S. M. addressing the players and the organisers on zoom from Chennai.
"We were delighted to hear from the Minister and also receive a sponsorship from AAVIN – Tamil Nadu Co-operative Milk Producers Federation Limited," an elated Maheshwaran said.
Expressing thanks to all players, their families and the sponsors, Maheshwaran said, "I would like to thank our sponsors, particularly Mr Raja and Mr Thanu from Azera and co / Runga development (Title Sponsors), Mrs Sujatha, Care and cure physiotherapy, Ilango Krishnamoorthy from Aalayam Thiru Subramaniam Temple, Subbiah from Zymo, Raisa from Auckland Galata, Bobby from Little India, and Vijay from Rotti Hut."
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