CCL II was low on star presence

Anirban Das Blah, MD of a leading celebrity management company, says it is an exciting media property. "It is a happy marriage of India's two great passions - cricket and cinema. It is a unique entertainment proposition that we haven't seen before. It might never get as big as an IPL, but surely it has the potential to get bigger," observes Anirban.
However, director Mani Shankar feels that it is the quality of the cricket that is pushing the TRPs. "The quality of matches we have seen has been top draw. The actors are playing serious cricket and that's what makes for a spectacle," says Mani Shankar.
The cricket has been rivetting no doubt, but the reigning stars seem to be missing in action. The marketing pitch of 100 stars, 6 teams, 2 religions (Cricket & Cinema) and 1 platform seems a little too farfetched. There are stars like Salman Khan, Mohan Lal, Sudeep, Venky, Vishal and Jeet in the lineup, but the list of superstars missing from action seems to be far longer.
Here's a look at some of the stars we'd love to see in action!

Telugu Warriors
The team is full of junior artistes like Charan Tej (not Chiranjeevi's son) and TV actors. "Top league stars like Mahesh Babu, NTR, Allu Arjun, Ram Charan Tej, Balakrishna, Nagarjuna, Naga Chaitanya and Rana are no where to be seen. The same applies for the leading ladies as well," says B Promodh Kumar, an entrepreneur. "The team looks like a collection of small-time character artistes with the exception of likes of Venky, Srikanth and Tarun," he adds.

Mumbai Heroes
The owner of the Karnataka Bulldozers, Ashok Kenny has a nickname for the Mumbai team. He calls them "pretty boys". With Salman Khan not playing, they look like a bunch of pretty boys. The likes of Bobby Deol, Suniel Shetty and Riteish Deshmukh seem to be the only source of star-power in the team. Having the likes of Hrithik, SRK, Aamir, Saif Ali Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, Shahid Kapoor, Ajay Devgn and Sanjay Dutt show up would have been a party," says Sai Ritin a student of engineering.
Chennai Rhinos The same seems to hold true for the other South Indian teams in the league. Vishal, Arya and Jiiva are the only recognizable stars in the Chennai Rhinos' line-up. The likes of Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Vikram, Vijay, Suriya, Ajit, Vijaykanth, Dhanush, Karthi are all missing in action. "Imagine the kind of frenzy the presence of Rajinikanth in the ranks of the team would have had. He would have just had to toss a cigarette to send the crowd into a delirium," says Srivats Iyyengar, a Chartered Accountant based in Hyderabad.

Karnataka Bulldozers Except for Sudeep, Diganth and Dhruv, everybody else is pretty much an unknown entity. The star power of Puneet Rajkumar, Upendra, Shiv Raj Kumar, Darshan and Ganesh would surely have added to that X factor.

Kerala Strikers Mohanlal seems to be the only leading light of the Kerala Strikers. Everybody else from Mammootty, Dileep, Jayaram, and Suresh Gopi to Prithviraj are nowhere to be seen.

Bengal Tigers Jeet is the biggest superstar in all of Bengal. But the likes of Joy, Tabun, Sugata, Babul, Vivek are not in the same league as crowd pullers.