Dindigul Dragons
Dindigul Dragons is a Twenty20 cricket team representing the city of Dindigul in the Tamil Nadu Premier League.
The team is owned by Srinivasan H R, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, TAKE Solutions.
The team is coached by former Indian cricketer M. Venkataramana. Ravichandran Ashwin is the captain of the franchise.
Franchise History
Srinivasan H R, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, TAKE Solutions was the 7th highest bidder and he chose the district Dindigul and the team was named as Dindigul Dragons. The launch of the Dindigul Dragons took place on Monday, 22 August 2016 at the NPR College of Engineering and Technology, Natham, Dindigul. Actor Vishnu Vishal was the Chief Guest of the event. Dindigul District Cricket Association President Mr RSK Raguraam, the Guest of Honour, and Patron in Chief, Mr J Sambabu graced the occasion.TNPL 2016
The 2016 edition of the Tamil Nadu Premier League began on 24 August 2016. The captain of the side Ravichandran Ashwin was not available due to International commitments and V Subramania Siva captained the Dindigul Dragons in his place. The team began the tournament in an unstoppable fashion. They won their 1st 4 matches on the trot. They also had their captain R Ashwin back for the clash against Ruby Kanchi Warriors. Their winning streak was put to an end by the eventual runners-up Chepauk Super Gillies. Ravichandran Ashwin played only 2 games, yet Dindigul Dragons managed to finish 2nd in the points table and qualify to the semi-finals. The team management hoped Ravichandran Ashwin would be available to play the all important semi-finals but their hopes went in vain as the BCCI did not clear Ashwin to play in it due to Team India's series against New Zealand that was coming up. The team missed his presence in the semi-final and lost to eventual champions Tuti Patriots. Jagadeesan was the leading Run scorer for Dindigul with 397 runs and Murugan Ashwin was the leading wicket-taker with 13 wickets.TNPL 2017
Ashwin Venkatraman replaced Ravichandran Ashwin as the captain due to the latter's unavailability courtesy Team India's tour of Sri Lanka.The campaign started with a defeat against the TUTI Patriots. In the next game, it created a tournament record by defeating the Madurai Super Giants by 10 wickets and with 57 balls to spare. The team lost the next game and the next was abandoned due to rain. Losses in their final two group games saw it finish 6th on the points table and rendering them unable to qualify for the play-off.
TNPL 2018
Schedule
Dindigul Dragons are scheduled to play the opening match of this year's TNPL against the Ruby Trichy Warriors. Tirunelveli and Dindigul will host 14 matches each and 4 other matches will be held at Chennai.Squad
The final list of players picked up by Dindigul Dragons in the 2018 TNPL Player Draft- Ravichandran Ashwin
- R Vivek
- Narayan Jagadeesan
- Jagannathan Kaushik
- NS Chaturved
- C Hari Nishanth
- Anirudh Balachander
- M Abhinav
- M Silambarasan
- Trilok Nag
- ME Yazh Arun Mozhi
- Nivethan Radhakrishnan
- M Mohammed
- Ramalingam Rohit
- Adithya Arun
- M Sujendran
- N Ramakrishnan
- RA Aravind
- Varun Totadri
Support Staff
- Coach: M. Venkataramana
- Assistant Coach: VRS Guru Kedarnath
2018 Campaign
they bounced back from the opening game defeat with a resounding win against the Siechem Madurai Panthers with their captain R Ashwin starring with the ball, Vivek and Jagadeesan starring with the bat leading them to win the match with 28 balls to spare. they then turned on the heat registering wins against the Lyca Kovai Kings, VB Kanchi Veerans and the JONES Tuti Patriots and moved to the top of the table courtesy of the fourth straight win. Jagadeesan also led the side theyll after the departure of Ashwin, his stint with CSK proving effective as he starred both with the bat and behind the stumps. Then came the 5-day break. they faced the IDream Karaikudi Kaalai and they beat them comfortably. their last game was against the Chepauk Super Gillies and they beat them with 39 balls to spare, the best margin in terms of balls in TNPL 2018, to secure a top 2 finish. A spot in the final was up for grabs and they did not hesitate to take it with both hands as they thumped Madurai Panthers by 75 runs recording the highest margin of victory of this edition of the tournament and they also breached the 200 run mark for the first time in this tournament. they faced the Siechem Madurai Panthers again on 12 August in the finale of the TNPL 2018. Though Madurai had lost to Dindigul twice in the lead up to the finals, the Siechem Madurai got their revenge as they lifted the crown for the first time.
Highlights
- Dindigul Dragons registered the highest score of the TNPL 2018 in the qualifier 1 against the Siechem Madurai Panthers.
- The highest margin of victory in terms of balls remaining is 39 balls, when they defeated the Super Gillies in their last match of the group stage.
- The highest margin of victory in terms of runs was 75 runs, where they defeated the Siechem Madurai Panthers in the qualifiers.
- Jagadeesan got the ‘Krishna Mines Super White Super Fours’ of the Tournament Award for the maximum number of fours in the tournament.
- Vivek Raj was awarded the ‘Equitas Funtastic’ Player of the Tournament for his brilliant hitting throughout the tournament.
TNPL 2019
Squad
The final list of players picked up by Dindigul Dragons in the 2019 TNPL Player Draft- Ravichandran Ashwin
- R Vivek
- Narayan Jagadeesan
- Jagannathan Kaushik
- NS Chaturved
- C Hari Nishaanth
- M Abhinav
- M Silambarasan
- Trilok Nag
- M Mohammed
- Ramalingam Rohit
- Adithya Arun
- Varun Totadri
- Sumant Jain
- ME Yazh Arun Mozhi
- Karthik Saran M
- S Sujay
- B Pranesh
- M Anbu
Support Staff
- Head Coach: M. Venkataramana
- Assistant Coach: VRS Guru Kedarnath
- Performance Coach: Prasanna
- Manager: Balaji Maradapa
- Performance Analyst: Jayakumar
- Physio: Sreenivas Rao
- Trainer: Thangavel
- Masseur: Naresh Kumar
2019 Campaign
Their second match was against the defending champions Seichem Madurai Panthers. they batted once again and started off well with 100 runs opening stand. Jagadeesan 87* ensured they finished at 182/6 in 20 overs. The bowlers continued their good form and they won the match by 30 runs.
Achievements
- In the first edition of the TNPL, Dindigul Dragons finished 2nd on the points table and was beaten eventually by the Tuti Patriots in the semi finals.
- N Jagadeesan was the tournament's leading run scorer with 397 runs and was also named as the Player of the Tournament.
- Jagadeesan was also the scorer of the most 50's and effected the most dismissals in the TNPL 2016.
- Murugan Ashwin, who was part of the Dindigul Dragons Squad for the first 2 editions of the TNPL was the tournament's second leading wicket taker and was the outfield player with the most catches in the 2016 edition of the TNPL.
- Dindigul Dragons holds the record for the largest margin of victory in terms of wickets and balls to spare. The game against Madurai Super Giant which was played on 25 July 2017, Dindigul won the match by 10 wickets and 57 balls to spare.
- Jagadeesan became the first batsman to score 1000 runs in TNPL when he scored 87* against Madurai Panthers on 22 July 2017 at ICL Cricket Ground, Tirunelveli.
- Silambarsan started his TNPL 2019 on a high picking up back to back 4 wicket hauls.