This is the fourth post in a four-part post. I’d pinged each of the four MPL 2012 team captains to send me, in their own words, their thoughts on how they chose, and why they retained the players that they did.

The following is what Ankit, the captain of Avengers, Captain America, the First Avenger, sent in.

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Picking just four members of your team of seventeen is like picking your top four songs from your entire playlist. It is hard because the decision making is not one dimensional. Just like different songs evoke different feelings, different team members bring different talents. So, to find the right mix is critical.

Avengers had a really good mix of players the last season. Players that made it to the top of the table such as Priyank and Amol. Players with passion for the game such as Raghu, Swarooph and Anand. Players who on any given day can win you matches such as Adai, Malolan and Phani to players who really are in it to have a good time such as Santosh, Kunal, Prashant, Neel and me. And then there were some good finds such as Satish, Balaji and Sam.

When it came to picking the fantastic four, the first choice was obvious for me and it was not Priyank. I understand this was/will be the most controversial decision so I will keep the justification for later. Folks who know me, know that I am not the best when it comes to deciding batting order, bowling rotations and field placements. So, I needed someone who is good at that, someone who eats crickets, sleeps crickets and breathes cricket. And if you poll the entire MPL community, there is only one person who will stand out and that is Raghu. Raghu is the reason we have the brand MPL. Sure, we all make jokes about his over-commitment to the game but no one will argue against him being the Lalit Modi of MPL (excluding the corruption). If Ganesh is the one who got all the cricket playing folks together, Raghu made playing together popular. To better explain, if Ganesh is Cleve Moler, Raghu is Jack Little. I have very high respect for folks who can do stuff I cannot and Raghu is one of them. I needed Raghu more than anyone for I appreciate his skills and talents more than any one can. So he was locked as the second Avenger. What? Of course, I was the first one 😉

And then there were two remaining. Initially, I toyed with the idea of keeping Priyank, after all he led the team to the only victory we had this past season. However, Priyank would make for an even better stock during the auction. I was ready to take that gamble. As the results of the auction show, it turned out to be a pretty bad gamble for we lost Priyank to the team that was already pretty strong. To balance this gamble, I wanted to make sure I have an equally good player on my side. I wanted a player who can match Priyank in skills and talent and it became obvious that Amol was going to be the third Avenger. Amol is a great player with great attitude. Any team would be better by having him in the team, so this year its the Avengers 🙂

For the fourth and final spot, which team would not have Superman in their team? That is exactly what I did, I chose Superman, aka Anand for the fourth spot. On a good day, he can destroy a good batting lineup, but that does not mean on a bad day you will be off that easily. He is our secret weapon. He is the one you won’t see coming. He will be the sole person responsible for making the phrase, “Its a plane… its a bird… its Superman” famous again.

Avengers are not that strong on paper this year, but with the team we have we surely will be giving a strong fight to whichever team we play. Here’s to all the teams, all the players and to the MPL family…. cheers!

Thanks for making MPL so fun, so exciting and so eventful. I so look forward to this season.

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