Some mistook him for India’s World Twenty20 hero, but this was Joginder Singh, not Sharma, a Delhi-based all-rounder who will be leading the BSNL team. The team, like the skipper, is unanimously considered one of the most low-profile of BCCI’s corporate event — Joginder, of all the 12 captains, is the only one who hasn’t played a single first-class game (ITC captain Bablu Kumar is the closest, with four games for Punjab). Over the course of next two days, he will stand face to face with two of his own heroes — Yuvraj Singh and Rahul Dravid — for the toss, as his team take on an army of reputations at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.

Apart from the Rs 1 crore prize-money, and providing Team India players with vital match practice, the Corporate Trophy is an opportunity for a battery of unknowns to put their names in circulation, with performances in what could be a high-profile event leading to dreams as varied as first-class games, national reckoning and, who knows, a couple of IPL contracts as well.

At the other end of the spectrum from Joginder’s BSNL side are the India Cements squad — cynosure of all eyes at the stadium on Monday. They are coached by Stephen Fleming, and Steve Rixon has traveled straight from the ICL into BCCI secretary N Srinivasan’s squad as the fielding coach under the amnesty scheme. Former Team India trainer Gregory King was there giving the players a helping hand. Almost all players, incidentally, were carrying their Chennai Super Kings gear, indicating that there wasn’t too much of a difference between the two sides — but for the switch from one high-profile skipper to another, Rahul Dravid taking the place of Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

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