Top cricketers for KPL T20

Some of the country's leading cricketers will be seen in action in the fourth Karnataka Premier League T20 tournament to be held in August-September and the auction for which will be held on July 25.

Announcing this at a media conference here on Thursday, Karnataka State Cricket Association secretary Brijesh Patel said the tournament will feature eight franchise teams with each side allowed to retain just two players from last year.

Top national and Indian Premier League cricketers like Vinay Kumar, Stuart Binny, Robin Uthappa, Lokesh Rahul, Abhimanyu Mithun, Manish Pandey, Sreenath Aravind, Karun Nair, CM Gautham, Mayank Agarwal, Shreyas Gopal, Ronit More, K.C. Cariappa, J Suchith and Shishir Bhavane will be part of this edition.

Each team can bid for 18 players besides two from catchment areas, while the tournament will be held in Mysuru and Hubballi, Patel said.

On the absence of players from other States, Patel said the KSCA has been asking the BCCI to allow pan-India representation.

"We have been asking the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for permission to allow players from other states to be part of our bash. Players are keen to play and the window that we have created allows for players to take part and that would make this event more bigger, better and more challenging," said Patel.

The T20 franchise-based league, which will follow the format of the preceding editions, will witness the introduction of the Eliminator, similar to the Indian Premier League.

The KPL 2015 will be see participation of an All Stars celebrity cricket team led by Sandalwood star Kiccha Sudeep. This team will feature some top former India cricketers from the State like Venkatesh Prasad, Sunil Joshi and David Johnson among others.

The first edition of the Karnataka Premier League was held in 2009 (Winners - Provident Bangalore Rural), the second in 2010 (Mangalore United) and the third last year (Mysore Warriors).

As a tribute to former KSCA president the late Maharaja of Mysuru, Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar, the Karnataka Premier League is named in his memory since 2014.

The tournament will start in Mysore followed by matches in Huballi before returning to Mysore for the final on September 13. KPL IV will be telecast live on Sony Six.