HYDERABAD: Cheering for their team with the slogan, ‘Jai Telugu Warriors’, the players, led by captain Akhil Akkineni gear up for the finals of Celebrity Cricket League (CCL) 2023- Reloaded, which will take place on March 24 at Dr YS Rajashekar Reddy Cricket Stadium in Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.
The league reaches the pinnacle of its excitement as the top four teams contend for the coveted CCL 2023 trophy in the finals. In the semifinals, the Karnataka Bulldozers will take on Telugu Warriors and Bhojpuri Dabanggs will take on Mumbai Heroes.
The poster for the semifinals was unveiled at a glittering ceremony with the full team of Telugu Warriors in the presence of Vishnu Vardhan Induri, Founder and Managing Director of Celebrity Cricket League; Tirumal Reddy, Director, Celebrity Cricket League; Vijay Kumar Yerram, Chairman Vasavi Group; Abhishek Chanda and Sowmya Chanda, Directors of the Vasavi Group. VASAVI Group is the primary sponsor for the Telugu Warriors team.
“We are delighted at the outstanding viewership and engagement of CCL 2023 on TV, social, digital, and OTT platforms,” said Vishnu Varshan Induri. The season has gone really well and we have got the highest viewership than in the last couple of years. This time, not only television but digital has played a very key role in reaching the audience. With television and digital together, we may have clogged over 100 million cumulative viewers. We hope the semis are also as fantastic as the league games,” he added.
Oozing with excitement, the captain of the team Akhil Akkineni said, “I am happy to be playing in Vizag. I will miss playing in Uppal though as the crowd is always housefull there, supporting not only the Telugu Warriors but all the teams. I am happy that it is at least happening in a Telugu state. I have literally played the first ball of CCL. I am happy to see such progress in viewership and in the league growing.”
He added that he takes Cricket seriously, whether as practice or in the main game. “I tell them (the other players) the same thing, when we come here, we have to do it seriously. Let’s play to win. They respect the competitive spirit. I consider them my family,” he said. Sudheer Babu, on being asked to pick what was the most favourite moment from the entire season, said, “Even though it is hard to pick one, I think the way we fought back against the Bengal Tigers was good because they were in a commanding position. Also, as a team, we gel really well.
The entire CCL season is like a holiday for us, as we remain busy and stressed out on other days.” About upcoming movies, he said Mama Mascheendra, will be released this summer. “There is another untitled film and then two more coming up for release this year,” he said.