This is the part one of the second, in a four-part post. I’d pinged each of the four MPL 2013 team captains to send me, in their own words, their thoughts on why they chose the player they did, to captain their respective squads for MPL 2014.

The following is what Sir Mayank, the former captain of Justice League, sent in.

As the season progressed, Justice League was slowly but surely been identified as “Kaushik’s XI”. This was evident from his statistics. Kaushik,

1. scored the highest number of points and hence was the number #1 ranked player in the league.
2. has the highest number of points accumulated as a batsman.
3. was the 3rd highest run scorer in the league.
4. has the best Economy Rate for someone who has taken at least 5 wickets in the season.

Justice League now needs a strong leader, one who leads the team by example. Who better than Kaushik, the heart and soul of the team.

Kaushik’s thoughts, on why he retained Mayank and Ganesh are as follows

I was mainly looking for two all rounders. Having said that, there were quite a few players in Justice League who can bat and bowl, and are good in both. My second criteria was experience in MPL specifically about the other players in the club.

Mayank proved in last season that he is a bat with a great temperament. Without the burden of captaincy, I am sure he will only do better. He is also a very under-rated bowler. I believe that Mayank is a great bowler just because he is very disciplined and knows what he is doing.

Ganesh is undoubtedly the most skilled and dedicated player we have had. Justice League has put him in tough situations and has curtailed him from playing his natural game. I believe that we as a team need to give him a better platform this time.

Above all, all three of us are so different in our attitude and approach to the game, which I think will be the key in striking a balance. We are so desperate to re-write history and none others would know better as to how it feels to lose after fighting so hard.

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