Coach Mushtaq Ahmed has played a vital role: Deccan Gladiators team owner

The Deccan Gladiators finished the league stage at the top of the table in the Abu Dhabi T10 with 7 wins from 10 matches. Ahead of their Qualifier 1 match against Delhi Bulls on Friday, Deccan Gladiators team owner Gaurav Grover expressed that he is certain the Gladiators will reach the Final.

“This time, everything has gone the way we wanted. We got the players we wanted during the Players Draft. I am pretty sure that we will play in the Final with the kind of all-rounders we have. The credit goes to Coach Mushtaq Ahmed and the team analyst Prasanna Agoram. They are playing a vital role,” said the Deccan Gladiators team owner.

“We have Mushtaq Ahmed as a coach for the last three years”

When asked about the thought process behind selecting the Deccan Gladiators team for the current season in the Abu Dhabi T10 Players Draft, he said, “We have Mushtaq Ahmed as a coach for the last three years. I grew up watching him play. So, we have a lot of respect for him. We also have a very good analyst, Prasanna Agoram. These people have a lot of knowledge. In consultation with them, we selected our players. I am happy with the players we selected. The combination is perfect.”

The Gladiators team owner also went on to open up about the franchise’s plans to expand and go global in the coming years, “We are just waiting for pandemic to be over. We have a lot of plans to go globally. We want more people joining us and more people watching T10.”

Speaking further on the strategies being planned, Grover added, “This year, we could not work a lot on fan activation due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the social media team has done a good job within the limitations. We have plans and strategies from next year onwards. Our vision is very clear. We want to create a full-packaged brand. We want to play some friendly matches in India as well.”

Abu Dhabi T10 is growing in popularity, showing bright signs for the future: Northern Warriors owners

The Defending champions of the Abu Dhabi T10 – Northern Warriors haven’t had the best of seasons this year as they have registered just 2 wins from 9 matches. When asked about what went wrong this season, Northern Warriors’ Co-owner and Director Mohomed Morani said that the team took time to settle down this year, “After winning the trophy twice in three years, we will be the favorites every time we play in this tournament. But, this time we have a completely new team with new coaches so we have had more challenges this year. The team took time to settle down in the tournament this season.”

However, Morani also spoke about the positive takeaways for the team from this season, “We are holding some of the records this year as well. The highest run-getter record, highest partnership and maximum sixes in an innings among others. These records show that the Warriors are a dangerous team and anything can happen.”