Hyderabad Deccan Chargers

The Hyderabad team for the DFL Indian Premier League (IPL) T20 event has been christened as 'Deccan Chargers.

The players of the Deccan Chargers were introduced at a glittering function at Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC) last night. The name, logo and anthem of the Hyderabad team was also unveiled.

Chairman of Deccan Chronicle T Venkatram Reddy said "The Deccan Chronicle group had always believed in promoting sports, including cricket and the Deccan Chargers is our way of contributing to hit this vision. We are confident that Deccan Chargers would inspire a whole new generation of young crickters in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa to build on their talent and scale greater heights.

President and CEO of Deccan Chargers J Krishnan said 'the logo for the team, the 'Charaging Bull' signifies strength, power and aggression. The team flag comprises Red and Gold. Red stands for aggression and dominace, while Gold signifies victory.

Stating that Deccan Chronicle was committed to the growth of sports especially cricket, he said it had decided to start a Sports Academy for the benefit of youngsters.

He said the team management also announced that Australian wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist would be the deputy to VVS Laxman.

State Labour Minister and President of Hyderabad Cricket Association G Vinod unfurled the team flag and handed it over to Laxman.

Later, talking to newspersons, Laxman said it was an honour to be the captain of a wonderful unit of international players.

He said IPL T20 would also provide a great platform for young players to play side by side with international greats and hone their skills.

"Any cricketer of my team can play at any position and team management will sit and decide the batting order, Laxman said when asked about the batting order of the team."

Captain Laxman said "The concept of T20 cricket is to enterain the masses and I am sure no one coming to the ground to watch us play will be disappointed."

Coach Robin Singh, expressing his happiness said: With players like Adam, the best thing to do is to leave them alone. They are match winners. It is a risk a coach has to take when you have players like that in your team. In a way, I am happy to deal with such guys because you don't have to do too much with them.

Laxman and his Indian compatriots were present at the function but none of the overseas players made it to the official launch.

In a message, Adam Gilchrist said "Boundary lines only exist on cricket grounds, but there will be no boundaries within the team players.' He expressed his appreciation for the Hyderabad cricket fans and said "they are extremely knowledgable and terrific supporters of the game."

Accepting the positon of Vice-Captain, Gilchrist pledged to bring his international experience to support the growth of young cricketers in the Hyd franchise.

Team Deccan Chargers had a great mix of young and experience with some of the finest cricketing talent from across the globe.
Besides Captain Laxman, it has the world's best wicketkeeper-batsman in the shape of Adam Gilchrist and match winner Andrew Symonds.

Deccan Charges would play their first game against 'Kolkata Knight Riders' in Kolkata on April 20 and will play its first home game against the 'Delhi Daredevils' on April 22 at the Rajiv Gandhi International stadium.

Chargers: VVS Laxman(capt) Adam Gilchrist(vice-capt, wk), Andrew Symonds, Herschelle Gibbs, Shahid Afridi, Chaminda Vass, Scott Styris, Chamara Silva, Nuwan Zoysa, R P Singh, Rohit Sharma, Arjun Yadav, Dwaraka Ravi Teja, Pragyan Ojha, Doddapaneni Kalyankrishna, P Vijaya Kumar, Y Venu Gopal Rao, Halhadhar Das (wk), Sanjay Bangar and Sarvesh Kumar. Coach: Robin Singh.