Sudeep’s Karnataka Bulldozers to open their CCL campaign against Bengal Tigers

Cricket is like religion in India, and when you combine films with the sport, it takes on a different avatar altogether. Celebrity Cricket League (CCL) the cricket tournament that brings together actors from eight film industries for pulsating cricketing action is back for its ninth edition, which comes after a three-year-break, owing to the pandemic.

Eight teams, representing Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bangla, Malayalam, Kannada, Bhojpuri and Punjabi cinema, will fight it out in matches spread across four weekends, starting on February 18. Every Saturday and Sunday, there will be four matches each and over four weeks, all eight would have played four matches each. The top four will proceed to the semi-finals on March 18, with the finale to be held on March 19.

This time around, Kiccha Sudeep is not leading the Karnataka Bulldozers; Pradeep Bogadi is. Sudeep is on the team, though, which also includes CCL veterans J Karthik and Rajeev Hanu. Joining them this time on the 16-member squad are Suneel Rao, Prathap, Prasanna, Shivarajkumar, Ganesh, Darling Krishna, Sourav Lokesh, Chandan, Arjun Yogi, Nirup Bhandari, Nanda Kishore and Sagar Gowda.

The Bulldozers have their first match on February 18 against the Bengal Tigers in Lucknow, after which they will fly to Jaipur for their next against the Kerala Strikers on February 26. The third game on March 4 is against the Chennai Rhinos in Bengaluru, while their last qualifier is against Punjab De Sher on March 11 in Jodhpur. Interestingly, many members of the Bulldozers team are also playing the two-day Kannada Chalanachitra Cup tournament in Bengaluru on February 24 and 25.

The semi-finals and the finale will be held in Hyderabad, which is home ground for the organizers of the tournament. The matches are set to be telecast live and exclusive on Zee Network channels, with Zee5 the official streaming partner.