A total of 48 players were picked by six franchises in the player draft for the inaugural edition of the World Pickleball League which will be held next month.
While the players draft consisted of 75 players from 20 countries, the tournament will feature men and women players from 14 countries including India, Japan, Spain, South Korea, Australia and the United Kingdom.
The WBPL, which works closely with All Indian Pickleball Association (AIPA), is co-founded by former Indian tennis players Gaurav Natekar and Arati Ponnappa Natekar and will be held from January 24 to February 2.
The six franchises in the tournament will represent Chennai, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Delhi. The owners were guided by the league during the player draft on Wednesday.
"To ensure that the draft process was smooth, fair and transparent, we curated a special in-house software that consisted of all the necessary information about the players," Natekar said.
"We wanted to pick some of the best players across the globe and have a combination of players who are experienced as well as new, young talent. We also wanted to give our Indian players a chance to shine so we had mandated each team that one player should be from India in each team," Natekar told PTI.
A total of eight players will be in each team including four men and as many women including a mandatory Indian player.
"The league format will comprise of a round-robin stage, where each team plays against the other resulting in 15 ties. Each tie featuring five games including men's singles, women's singles, doubles in each category and mixed doubles," the league said.
"Each team will play a total of 5 ties, at the group stage, the top four teams going forward to semi-finals and finals. Giving fans the opportunity to witness a total of 90 matches during the entire duration of the league," it added.
Squads: Delhi: Alexa Schull, Isha Lakhani, Eduardo Irizarry, Willy Chung, Lauren Mercado, Leander Lazaro, Kenta Miyoshi, Aiko Yoshitomi.
Pune: William Sobek, Molly Knaggs, Vanshik Kapadia, Brooke Revuelta, Louis Laville, Molly O'Donoghue, Mateusz Matysik, Rocio Cardo.
Mumbai: Brandon Lane, Glauka Carvahal Lane, Mayur Patil, Sabrina Dominguez, Mihae Kwon, Kim Eung Gwon, Bartosz Karbownik, Katie Morris.
Bengaluru: Jack Foster, Katerina Stewart, Vrushali Thakare, Trang Hyunh McClain, Marcelo Jardim, Alejandra Bobaria, Felix Grunert, Mauro Garcia.
Chennai: Maria Klokotzy, Etienne Blaszkewycz, Sonu Vishwakarma, Tanner Tomassi, Thaddea Lock, Edward Perez, Tyra Calderwood, Sarah Jane Lim.
Hyderabad: Max Freeman, Ava Cavataio, Kuldip Mahajan, Ross Whittaker, Madalina Grigoriu, Karolina Owczarek, Ben Cawston, Ludovica Sciaky.
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