by Aakash Poojari Polali
Daijiworld Media Network Bangalore
Bangalore, Mar 4: Cricket fans and administrators on Tuesday gave rousing welcome to the victorious Indian Under-19 cricket team.
The team was taken in a procession from Bangalore Airport to the M.A. Chinnaswamy Stadium, the headquarters of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA).
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has already announced a cash reward of Rs 15 lakh (37,500 dollars approx) for each of the players and Rs.10 lakh for each member of the support staff that accompanied the squad to Kuala Lumpur, the venue of this year's junior World Cup.
India beat South Africa by 12 runs in the U-19 World Cup final in Kuala Lumpur. The team was unbeaten through the competition and beat South Africa twice in the event. The India's U-19 side have lost just one game in the last two World Cups - the final loss to Pakistan in the last edition in 2006.
In the coming days, the U-19 stars will sign up for the various IPL teams. The board was considering stipulating a condition that each of the franchises in the Indian Premier League will get the first option for picking Under-19 players from their own catchment areas. But some of the franchises, who don't have too many U-19 players in their catchement areas, are not too comfortable with that and decision will be taken in a week's time.
As things stand, Virat Kohli, Tanmay Srivastava and Pradeep Sangwan are expected to join the Delhi franchise, Abhinav Mukund and Napoleon Einstien are tipped to play for Chennai, Ravindra Jadeja is likely to turn up for Jaipur, Manish Pandey and Sourabh Tiwary for Bangalore, Iqbal Abdulla for Mumbai, Taruwar Kohli and Siddarth Kaul are expected to join Mohali and Shreevats Goswami will most likely turn out for Kolkata.