IPL 2020 will witness Mobile Premier League (MPL) tie-up with franchise Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) as the former became the principal sponsors of both the Knight Riders franchises in Indian Premier League (IPL) and Caribbean Premier League(CPL). IPL has Kolkata Knight Riders whereas CPL has Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) as the teams participating in the respective leagues.
Previously, Kolkata Knight Riders have seen many players like Shakib Al Hasan, Brendon McCullum, Sourav Ganguly, Jacques Kallis, Ajit Agarkar, Shoaib Akhtar, Morne Morkel, Chris Lynn playing for them in various seasons. Now, they have several players in IPL 2020 with the likes of Andre Russell, Nitish Rana, Shubman Gill, Pat Cummins, and Sunil Narine, and will be led by wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik.
IPL 2020: KKR Excited To Team Up With MPL Who Loves To Be Principal Sponsors
CPL 2020 will commence on August 18 while IPL 2020 will be held in UAE from September 19. CPL will conclude on September 10 while IPL will conclude on 10th November. Besides three-time champions TKR, CPL features five other teams. In IPL besides two-time champions KKR, IPL features seven other teams.
Venky Mysore, CEO & MD, Knight Riders said, “We are very excited to partner with MPL, which is a vibrant Indian start-up company promoted and run by a group of young and innovative people, in Esports and Gaming, that is bound to grow significantly. Our partnership across KKR in IPL and TKR in CPL, will create new opportunities to socialize and activate our partnership.”
Excited to announce @PlayMPL as the principal sponsor for @KKRiders in @IPL & @TKRiders in @CPL
They are a vibrant Indian startup in Esports & Gaming, promoted & run by young, innovative minds. Looking fwd to building this partnership pic.twitter.com/kbWg86PsIB— Venky Mysore (@VenkyMysore) August 14, 2020
Abhishek Madhavan, VP, Growth and Marketing, MPL, said, “We are excited to be the principal sponsors for Kolkata Knight Riders. The team has been a household name right from the start and have won the prestigious IPL championship twice.”
“They have some stellar players and the team competes to win, which is what MPL is all about as well, so it is the perfect marriage that will help us take our brand to more users. With Trinbago Knight Riders, one of the strongest teams, having won the CPL Championship three times, as its sister franchise, this association will help us take MPL to the international sports arena.”
MPL was founded in 2018 and is Indian’s largest gaming platform having over 50 million registered users and 40 games like Free Fire, World Cricket Championship besides fantasy cricket.
The application is available in both android and iPhones and was founded by Sai Srinivas and Shubh Malhotra, the co-founders of Mobile Phone start u Creo. MPL is present in both India and Indonesia and has its offices in Pune, Bengaluru, and Jakarta and boasts of over 300 personnel.
Knight Riders Is The Only Global Brand Having Two Franchises
The TKR team won CPL in 2015,2017 and 2018 and has featured former KKR players like Brendon McCullum, Brad Hogg, Chris Lynn in previous editions. Currently, Darren Bravo, Lendl Simmons, Colin Munro, Sikandar Raza, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, Sunil Narine to name a few are in the squad for CPL 2020.
Knight Riders is the only global brand having two franchises TKR and KKR playing in CPL and IPL respectively besides being champions thrice and twice respectively. KKR won IPL twice under the able leadership of former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir in 2012 and 2014.