| BANGALORE:
Vijay Mallaya's UB group which won the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise for
Bangalore unveiled its team logo late last night. The team has been named Royal
Challengers (RC). As
has been reported earlier, the team has Charu Sharma as the CEO and Rahul Dravid
as the team captain. Martin Crowe, whose role is to focus on the strategic aspects,
is the Chief Cricket Officer. Venkatesh Prasad is the team coach and Evans Speachley
of South Africa is the physiotherapist with Muthu Kumar of Bangalore as assistant. The
RC team has tied up with Reebok for the sporting uniforms and Louis Phillippe
for formals. Monoviraj Khosla has designed the special uniforms for the cheer
leaders. During
the second round of the IPL player auction, RC netted Pakistan batsman Misbah-ul-Haq
and India under-19 captain Virat Kohli. New Zealand batsman Ross Taylor, Bangladesh
left-arm spinner Abdur Razzaq and India U-19 wicket-keeper batsman Shreevats Goswami
were the others who came to Bangalore.  The
team has a blend of batsmen, bowlers and all rounders. The batsmen are: Rahul
Dravid; Shivnarine Chanderpaul; Misbah-ul-Haq; Ross Taylor, Wasim Jaffer; Virat
Kohli; Jadessh Arunkumar; Bharat Chipli. The bowlers are: Dale Steyn (reportedly
the fastest bowler in world cricket at present); Zaheer Khan; Nathan Bracken;
Balachandra Akhil; Anil Kumble; Sunil Joshi; Abdur Razzak; KP Appanna; Praveen
Kumar. The all rounders are: Jacques Kallis; Cameron White; Vinay Kumar. The wicketkeepers
are Mark Boucher; Shreevats Goswami; Devraj Patil.
An
official statement indicates that the UB group is in talks with several partners
in the online space to tap young fans, create virtual clubs, explore mobile space
and leverage new media potential for marketing the team. Sale of merchandise and
on ground activations will be used to reach out to the Royal Challengers fan flowing.
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