Comilla Victorians

Comilla Victorians
কুমিল্লা ভিক্টোরিয়ান্স
League: Bangladesh Premier League
Captain: Bangladesh Mashrafe Mortaza
Coach: Bangladesh Mizanur Rahman Babul
Chairman: Nafisa Kamal
City: Comilla, Bangladesh
Colours:
Owner: Nafisa Kamal (Royal Sporting Limited)
Founded: 2015
Manager: Bangladesh Khaled Mashud
BPL wins: 1
Official website: http://comillavictorians.com.bd/

Comilla Victorians are a Bangladeshi professional men's cricket team, competing in Bangladesh Premier League, a Twenty20 cricket league. The team is based in Comilla, Chittagong. The team plays its games at Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium. The team is currently owned by Nafisa Kamal, while A H M Mustafa Kamal serves as an honorary member of the board. The team is captained by Bangladesh national cricket team captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza.

Franchise history

Foundation

The Comilla Victorians were created when the decision was made to expand the number of teams and move away state representative teams to city-based teams for the third season of the competition. With the revamp of Bangladesh Premier League, a scope was created for interested bidders to bid for Comilla-based franchise, being the second largest city in Chittagong Division.[1] The legal franchise rights were sold to Nafisa Kamal (Legends Sporting Limited), a former owner of defunct franchise Sylhet Royals. The rights were bought at US$27.50 million for five years. During October 2015, Comilla Victorians was officially established, thus becoming the second team to play from Chittagong Division, after Chittagong Vikings.[2]

2015–16

Draft pick

The Comilla Victorians were the newest addition to the Bangladesh Premier League. The draft pick was held on 22 October 2015, where the team picked nine overseas players and thirteen national players. Ironically, before the tournament, analysts predicted the Victorians as the weakest team in the tournament due to lack of variation in the team, despite inclusion of experienced players like Mashrafe Mortaza, Shoaib Malik and big hitters like Andre Russell, and Marlon Samuels.

Regular season

The Comilla Victorians opened its campaign against Dhaka Dynamites. The game was played on 22 November The Victorians were restricted to 110/8, which ended in a defeat to Dhaka Dynamites by six wickets. The Victorians went to having a three-game winning streak after that, convincingly defeating Chittagong Vikings, Rangpur Riders and Barisal Bulls. Victorians' strong bowling attack was admired after its brilliant performance against Barisal Bulls during its third game in regular season, where Bulls were bowled out for 89 runs, one of the lowest totals in Bangladesh Premier League. The team went on to maintaining its dreaded performance with bowling, when the team bowled out Rangpur Riders for 82 runs, resulting in a win by huge margin of 9 wickets. The team finished the regular season with seven wins of ten matches. Imrul Kayes was the second highest run-scorer of the tournament, scoring 312 runs at an average of 28.36 while Abu Hider was the second highest wicket taker with 21 wickets. Ashar Zaidi was awarded the player of the tournament for his outstanding all rounding performance.

Final

In-form after coming out as the lead in regular reason, the Victorians went on to win against the Barisal Bulls in Dhaka. The final was held at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on 15 December 2015, The Victorians won the toss and choose to field. A good spell of bowling from Ashar Zaidi and economical spell from Darren Stevens restricted the Bulls to (156/4) after 20 overs. The Victorians came on the top during the second innings after a blazing innings of 53(37) from Imrul Kayes. The final was taken till the last ball, with 11 runs needed in the last over. Alok Kapali pulled off a tense win after hitting a boundary in the last ball.[3]

Records

Season record
Matches Wins Losses No result Run rateSummary
10 7 3 0 0 1st (of 6)
Batting records
Player Innings Runs Average SRHighest Score
Imrul Kayes 12 312 28.36 114.70 67
Ashar Zaidi 8 215 53.75 138.70 53*
Ahmed Shehzad 7 204 34.00 110.86 76*
Bowling records
Player Innings OversRuns WicketsEconomy
Abu Hider 12 46 316 21 6.91
Ashar Zaidi 11 37 177 17 4.78
Nuwan Kulasekara 8 27 155 10 5.74

2016–17

Draft pick

Comilla Victorians entered the draft in 30 September 2016, where the team picked nine domestic and six overseas players. Captain of Bangladesh national cricket team captain Mashrafe Mortaza was retained to lead the team in second season. Mohammad Salahuddin was not retained as the coach, despite having a successful season. Mizanur Rahman Babul will be seen as the Head Coach for this season of Comilla Victorians.[4]

Team identity

Name and logo

After the foundation of the team in October 2015, Comilla Legends was proposed as the franchise name. However, the name Victorians was later finalised as the official name by Nafisa Kamal. The official logo was revealed in a launching ceremony where team's official jersey was launched by brand ambasasdor Ananta Jalil, Afiea Nusrat Barsha and team captain Mashrafe Mortaza.

Jersey colours

The kit colours of the team are red, gold and black. The logo of the team is displayed on the left chest while the silver sponsor Exim Bank logo is displayed on the right. Huawei is the platinum sponsor of the team. Sailor by Epyllion manufactures the kit for the team.

Sponsorship

Huawei, one of the well known mobile and network equipment manufacturer in Telco Industry, is the platinum sponsor of the franchise. The team attracted the most number of sponsors during the third season of the tournament with nine associate/silver sponsors which includes big names such as Marcel, Exim Bank, 100Plus, AVR, FBL, Minister HI-Tech Industries, MAX Group, Paragon and Rupayan Group.

Premier Bank is the official banking partner of the franchise, Gaan Bangla is the media partner, Magnito Digital is the print media partner and Westin Hotels & Resorts is the hospitality partner while bdcricteam becomes the online media partner starting from 2016 Bangladesh Premier League.[5][6]

Seasons

Year Bangladesh Premier League
2016 Champions

Current squad

As of 1 November 2016 [7]
Comilla Victorians Roster for BPL 2016

Batsmen

All Rounders

Bowlers

 Support Staff

Records

Team records

Result summary v. opponent

Opposition Pld W L T T+W T+L NR %
Barisal Bulls 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 100.00
Chittagong Vikings 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 100.00
Dhaka Dynamites 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 50.00
Rangpur Riders 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 66.66
Sylhet Super Stars 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 50.00

Sponsors and endorsement

Kit Period Kit manufacturer Shirt sponsor Sleeve sponsor Head Gear sponsor
2015 Sailor S. Alam Group of Industries Marcel, FBL Sailor
2016 Sailor Huawei Walton Group, FBL, Minister Electronics, S.Alam Group of Industries, Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd, Lisky, AVR Bangladesh M/S. Zaman Traders Sailor

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 12/2/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.