Mumbai, May 27 -- Bollywood cricket Franchise, Mumbai Heroes, owned by Sohail Khan, announced their final line-up of actor-cricketers who will play for the Celebrity Cricket League (CCL). The tournament will be held from June 4 to 12 in Bangaluru, Chennai, Vizag and Hyderabad from June 4 to 12. Salman Khan will play as opening batsman, with Suniel Shetty donning the hat of the skipper.
Mumbai Heroes also includes actors Riteish Deshmukh, Aftab Shivdasani, Sonu Sood, Varun Badola, Angad Bedi, Ashish Chaudhary, Vatsal Seth and Kabir Sadanand. Sohail will also be a part of the team. Barring Salman, the team does not boast of big stars. The team will go up against Kannada, Tamil and Telugu teams led by actors Sudeep, Surya and Victory Venkatesh respectively.
"The idea was to combine the two popular Indian religions, Bollywood and cricket, to produce great entertainment for the audience. The film fraternities from south India will battle Bollywood, for the cricket cup," says Sohail.
Undeterred by IPL's failure to make profits this year, Sohail insists that the Celebrity Cricket League already has sponsors in place. He informs, "After having paid the players their rack rates and travel expenses for the practice matches, we will distribute the profits equally among the players."
Sohail was the initial choice to be captain but turned down the request, saying that Suniel is more suited for that role. "He (Suniel) has more respect, command, experience and better knowledge of the game," Sohail says. The actor-filmmaker had earlier led a friendly celebrity cricket team in Visakhapatnam.
Mumbai Heroes has been practicing for three months and has a strong bowling lineup with Sonu, Ritesh and Kabir. "People should feel we played a good game," says Sohail.
