Celebrity Cricket League (CCL): Jiiva Replaces Vishal Krishna as Skipper of Chennai Rhinos

The fifth edition of the much awaited Celebrity Cricket League (CCL) is set to kick start on Saturday, 10 January in Mumbai. 

Latest reports suggest that Tamil actor Jiiva has replaced Vishal Krishna Reddy to lead Chennai Rhinos, with their first match on Sunday against Kerala Strikers.

It is due to his film commitments that the "Poojai" actor, who led the Chennai team for the previous seasons of the tournament, could not lead the team in the latest edition.

"Since Vishal was busy with his film's promotions, I've been asked to take over. Even though I've never been part of CCL, I've been playing cricket all these years in some format or the other. Sometimes I end up playing in my 'gully' (lane) or with friends on a ground. I'm passionate about the sport, and that's why I agreed to be part of the team," Jiiva on becoming the new skipper said, according to IANS.

It has to be remembered that Chennai Rhinos had earlier won the tournament twice under the leadership of Vishal.

Vishnu Vishal (vice captain), Arya, Bharath, Vikranth, Ramanaa, Shaam, Bose, Charan, Sanjay Bharathy, Prithvi, Udhay kumar, Ashok Selvan and Balaji are the other members of the Chennai team.

Meanwhile, the first match of this year's CCL will be held between Riteish Deshmukh's Veer Marathi and Suniel Shetty's Mumbai Heroes from 2.30 pm to 6.30 pm on Sunday, followed by the match between Sudeep's Karnataka Bulldozers and Manoj Tiwari's Bhojpuri Dabanggs at 7.00 pm.

Check the full schedule list HERE