Bangalore Royal Challengers unveils logo
Bangalore, india - March 13, 2008

Vijay Mallaya's UB group which won the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise for Bangalore unveiled its team logo late last night. The team has been named Royal Challengers (RC).

As has been reported earlier, the team has Charu Sharma as the CEO and Rahul Dravid as the team captain. Martin Crowe, whose role is to focus on the strategic aspects, is the Chief Cricket Officer. Venkatesh Prasad is the team coach and Evans Speachley of South Africa is the physiotherapist with Muthu Kumar of Bangalore as assistant.

The RC team has tied up with Reebok for the sporting uniforms and Louis Phillippe for formals. Monoviraj Khosla has designed the special uniforms for the cheer leaders.

During the second round of the IPL player auction, RC netted Pakistan batsman Misbah-ul-Haq and India under-19 captain Virat Kohli. New Zealand batsman Ross Taylor, Bangladesh left-arm spinner Abdur Razzaq and India U-19 wicket-keeper batsman Shreevats Goswami were the others who came to Bangalore.

The team has a blend of batsmen, bowlers and all rounders. The batsmen are: Rahul Dravid; Shivnarine Chanderpaul; Misbah-ul-Haq; Ross Taylor, Wasim Jaffer; Virat Kohli; Jadessh Arunkumar; Bharat Chipli. The bowlers are: Dale Steyn (reportedly the fastest bowler in world cricket at present); Zaheer Khan; Nathan Bracken; Balachandra Akhil; Anil Kumble; Sunil Joshi; Abdur Razzak; KP Appanna; Praveen Kumar. The all rounders are: Jacques Kallis; Cameron White; Vinay Kumar. The wicketkeepers are Mark Boucher; Shreevats Goswami; Devraj Patil.

An official statement indicates that the UB group is in talks with several partners in the online space to tap young fans, create virtual clubs, explore mobile space and leverage new media potential for marketing the team. Sale of merchandise and on ground activations will be used to reach out to the Royal Challengers fan flowing.