Celebrity teams on a sticky wicket

KOCHI

: Apart from providing some additional entertainment to fans who can watch their favourite actors in action live, celebrity

cricket

leagues intended to nurture harmony among all those involved. However, recent developments point out that all is not well with Mollywood's cricket teams.


'Divide and grow' seems to be the mantra of the cricket teams in the industry. In the past few months, many teams in Mollywood have split. In the latest development, directors' team is all set to divide.

Following splits, actors have now three teams. The singers' team is also following suit, it is learnt. "We have a team Directors11. If somebody wants to float a new team, they can do so," said director M A Nishad, who is the team captain.

Nishad said there isn't much spectators for celebrity cricket matches. "When we conduct matches abroad, there would be around 2,000 spectators. Once the number rose up to around 10,000. It was because of the presence of Mammootty that we could attract the crowd," he said.

The producers' cricket team led by Anil Thomas also saw a split a few months ago. Ashok Kumar, one of the founders of the producers' team, left the team and floated another one. "Name of our team is Mahindra Master Blasters. It is not a producers' team. Producers as well as others in the film industry are part of the team. We are the champions of Kerala film producers' premier league cricket tournament," Kumar said.

According to Pankaj Chandrasenan, the coach of the producers' team who has trained many other teams, including AMMA Kerala Strikers, he couldn't understand the reason for cricket teams mushrooming in the industry. "It is the dedication to the game that matters. The number of teams doesn't make any difference. They all should play well. That's all," Chandrasenan said.


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