Team: Deccan Chargers
Captain: VVS Laxman
Coach: Robin Singh
Franchisee: Deccan Chronicle
Franchise Cost: $107.01 Million
Squad:
VVS Laxman (Captian)
Sanjay Bangar
Halhadar Das (wk)
Herschelle Gibbs
Adam Gilchrist (wk)
Doddapaneni Kalyankrishna
Pragyan Ojha
Dwaraka Ravi Teja
PM Sarvesh Kumar
Shahid Afridi
Rohit Sharma
Chamara Silva
RP Singh
Scott Styris
Andrew Symonds
Chaminda Vaas
Venugopal Rao
Paidikalva Vijaykumar
Arjun Yadav
Nuwan Zoysa
Robin Singh (Coach)
Home Ground: Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad
The need for a big ground and an exclusive cricket facility necessitated the building of a cricket ground in Uppal, an eastern suburb of Hyderabad. Moreover the earlier venue – the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium – was owned by the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh, giving the Hyderabad Cricket Association limited control over the ground. Stretched over 16 acres of land, the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium did away Hyderabad’s reputation of being a high-scoring venue. The ground has had its share of controversy. The first came with the name, which the state government changed to honour a former Indian prime minister. The HCA had to pay out the contractors – Visaka Industries – after whom the stadium was originally named. Then, ten days before what would have been its first first-class match – between the Australians and Mumbai – the ground was deemed unfit to host a big match. But the stadium is now ready, a state-of-the-art facility, complete with floodlights installed in April 2008 in time for hosting the Deccan Chargers in the Indian Premier League.