Actor Mohanlal will lead the Kerala Strikers – Malayalam film industry’s answer to teams from other moviedoms in the Celebrity Cricket League (CCL). Actor Indrajith has been named the vice-captain. The team of Malayalam actors, along with its jersey and logo, was launched at a sparkling function here on Thursday. 

 The Kerala cine actors’ team is set to battle out with its counterparts from the Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi film industries in the second edition of the T-20 cricket tournament organised exclusively for filmstars.

The team will play five matches in the coming season of the CCL scheduled in January 2012. Apart from Mohanlal and Indrajith, the team includes other prominent stars like Kunchacko Boban, Asif Ali, Prithviraj, Unni Mukundan, Rajiv Pillai, Vinu Mohan, Bala, Nikhil, Nivin Pauly, Munna, Saiju Kurup, Bineesh Kodiyeri, Manikuttan, Vivek Gopan, Riaz Ahemmed, Prejoth Kalabhavan and Rejith Menon. 

Pankaj Chandrasekharan is the coach while Edavela Babu is the manager.The team is owned by MLS Strikers and Entertainment Pvt Ltd, a newly formed Chennai-based company promoted by Mohanlal, Shaji P M – a Chennai based Malayali businessman – and Lissy Priyadarshan. AMMA (Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes) lent its complete support to this venture and will be playing a major part in turning the CCL into a glamorous event. Mammootty will be the team’s non-playing member and mentor, said Lissy. 

Kochi will be one of the venues for season II of the CCL slated to be held between January 21 and February 12 next year. The league will have a total of 15 league matches, apart from the semi-finals and the final.

Another team of filmstars getting ready to be a part of the cricketing action this season is the ‘Bengal Tigers.’ Mollywood had decided to enter the CCL bandwagon after the inaugural edition last season had evoked a tremendous response from fans and the movie fraternity, with the likes of Venkatesh, Suriya, Riteish Deshmukh and Aftab Shivdasani turning out for their respective teams.  The Bollywood team, ‘Mumbai Heroes,’ is owned by Salman KHan