IPL news: Lucknow Super Giants name revealed, captain named

James Richardson
India

The new Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise owned by the RPSG group has been given the name Lucknow Super Giants.

Principal owner of the Lucknow Sanjiv Goenka revealed the team’s name was chosen after taking on board fan suggestions.

RPSG previously operated the temporary IPL franchise Rising Pune Super Giant, who stood in for Chennai Super Kings while their franchise was suspended.

Lucknow Super Giants will be captained by KL Rahul and will be based at Ekana Sports City once normality returns to the IPL schedule.

“Thank you so much for your overwhelming response to the ‘Naam banao naam kamao’ contest. Lakhs and lakhs of people responded, based on that we are very happy to choose the name for the Lucknow IPL team,” Goenka said in his video message, while revealing the team name.

“And the name that we have chosen based on your recommendations is Lucknow Super Giants. Thank you so much for your response and love and continue to give us your blessings in the future as well.”

The Lucknow Super Giants have signed three players ahead of the auction when they are expected to be very busy.

They have made Rahul the joint highest played player in the IPL by meeting a Rs 17 crore valuation. The Super Giants have also handed some serious dosh over to Australia all-rounder Marcus Stoinis and nailed down the services uncapped but highly-rated leg spinner Ravi Bishnoi.

The BCCI hopes to stage the 2022 IPL from last week of March to end of May and efforts will be made to host the lucrative event in India as per the wishes of team owners, Board secretary Jay Shah had said over the weekend.

“I am delighted to confirm that the 15th season of the IPL will start in the last week of March and will run until May end. A majority of the team owners expressed their wish that the tournament be held in India,” Shah said.

The date for the IPL Mega Auction has yet to be confirmed but it has been reported that the BCCI plan to stage a two-day event over the weekend of 12 and 13 February.