Nellai Royal Kings

Over the last decade, Nellai Royal Kings (NRK) has proven itself as one of the favourite teams in the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL). The franchise has never won a TNPL title but they have a huge fanbase. In 2016, the Tamil Nadu Premier League was started. It has its brief but impactful history. At that time Chennai Super Kings, who were playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL), were facing a two-year suspension from the league due to an allegation of match-fixing. The TNPL was planned to fill up the real gap of high-profile matches in Chennai and to discover and support the talented new-gen young players from every district. It was started by N. Srinivasan, TNCA president. TNPL's initial title sponsor was India Cements. Crown Forts Ltd bought the Nellai Royal Kings franchise for Rs.3.48 crores. The Nellai Royal Kings team is based in Tirunelveli. ICL Sankar Nagar Cricket Ground is their home ground. Fans of the Nellai Royal Kings are a different kind of a lot. If you ever catch a glimpse of Nellai Royal Kings fans during a TNPL season and feel the atmosphere, you'll begin to understand why. Nobody can beat the Nellai Royal Kings' supporters when it comes to the art of fandom. They support their team by heart and make everything like a festival by dancing on the streets, waving flags and doing a beautiful mixture of sports and ethnic. They lead a never-seen-before vibrancy in the audience stands by attending the matches at large, creating a fantastic ambience for every player.

NRK(Nellai Royal Kings) Team Owner

In the inaugural season of the Tamil Nadu Premier League, Nellai Royal Kings was bought by Crown Forts Ltd. for ₹3.48 crores. Prithvi Christy is the owner of the team. Nellai Royal Kings is a great team and the most important part of this team is the owners who are very well-known for their love and care towards their players. They always try to maintain a cordial relationship with their players to bring harmony to the team. It has always been seen that the owner of Nellai Royal Kings has been at one with all the teams and people associated with them. The beautiful correlation between them all made them one of the most gorgeous teams in the history of TNPL.

NRK (Nellai Royal Kings) Brand Value

The Nellai Royal Kings team is one of the favourite TNPL teams. This can be attributed to their consistency in winning the matches and also having players who are proven performers. With players like Baba Aparajith, Baba Indrajith, and Sanjay Yadav consistently representing the team for every match, the brand value of Nellai Royal Kings has always been on top. The fanbase of Nellai Royal Kings has always been loyal to the team. Currently, the brand value of the team is unknown as of now.

Performance of NRK(Nellai Royal Kings) over the years

Nellai Royal Kings has not consistently performed in the seasons that they have played. Out of the last 6 seasons, they have qualified for the playoffs only 2 times and have not played any finals. They have never won the title but never finished in the last position in the points table.

Year	TNPL Performance
2016	6th ( Group Stage)
2017	5th ( Group Stage)
2018	7th ( Group Stage)
2019	Eliminator
2020	—
2021	5th
2022	3rd
2023	–

2016 TNPL Season

The 2016 season of the Tamil Nadu Premier League was the first season of the TNPL. In this season Nellai Royal Kings played as VB Thiruvallur Veerans name. This season this team finished in 6th position in the points table and could not get a chance to play in playoffs. Baba Aparajith was the captain of the team. In their first-ever TNPL match, VB Thiruvallur played against Karaikudi Kaalai. They won their first match in the history of TNPL by 5 wickets. Baba Aparajith was selected as the man of the Match for his outrageous performance. In the next match, VB Thiruvallur Veerans' opponent was Siechem Madurai Panthers and they won the match by just 6 runs. Ramalingam Rohit was awarded as the man of the match. After losing the third match, VB Thiruvallur Veerans won their fourth match of the group stage against Ruby Kanchi Warriors by 42 runs. In their next 2 matches, VB Thiruvallur Veerans lost against Tuti Patriot and Chepauk Super Gillies. They won their last match against Lyca Kovai Kings just by 2 runs but could not qualify for the playoffs.

2017 TNPL Season

In the 2nd season of the Tamil Nadu Premier League, Nellai Royal Kings played as Thiruvallur Veerans name. They finished in the 5th position of the league table.

Thiruvallur Veerans played a total of 7 matches and won 3 out of those matches. In their first match, Thiruvallur Veerans lost the match against Chepauk Super Gillies by 6 wickets. In their second match, Thiruvallur Veerans won against Dindigul Dragons by 5 wickets. Rahil Shah was the man of the match for his bowling performance. Next match, Thiruvallur Veerans won by 57 runs against BA11SY Trichy. In their next two group league matches, Thiruvallur Veerans lost against Karaikudi Kaalai and Tuti Patriots. Afterwards, they won against Siechem Madurai Panthers but this win could not help them to qualify for the playoffs as they lost their last group league match against Lyca Covai Kings.

2018 TNPL Season

In 2017, Nellai Royal Kings played as VB Thiruvallur Veerans. Their captain was Baba Aparajith. This season, VB Thiruvallur Veerans made their worst performance ever in the Tamil Nadu Premier League. They finished the tournament at the 7th on the points table. In the first group league match, VB Thiruvallur Veerans lost against Tuti Patriots by 48 runs. Next match, VB Thiruvallur Veerans also failed to perform and lost the match by 8 wickets against Karaikudi Kaalai. In their next two matches, VB Thiruvallur Veerans lost against Dindigul Dragons and Siechem Madurai Panthers. In the 5th match of VB Thiruvallur Veerans in that season, they registered the first win in their name. They won the match against Lyca Covai Kings by 14 runs. It was too late, but a win is a win. Aushik Srinivas was the man of the match. In their last two group league matches, VB Thiruvallur Veerans did not get a win as they lost both matches against Chepauk Super Gillies and Ruby Trichy Warriors respectively. It is better to forget this season for the Nellai Royal Kings fans.

2019 TNPL Season

In the 2019 season of Tamil Nadu Premier League, Nellai Royal Kings played as VB Kanchi Veerans name. They finished in the 4th spot on the points table. This was the first time in their history that Nellai Royal Kings qualified for the playoffs. In the first match of the league stage of the 2019 season, VB Kanchi Veerans lost the match against Lyca Covai Kings by 8 wickets. The supporters of the team were very disappointed as they were thinking that last year's performance will repeat this season also. But in the next match, VB Kanchi Veerans won the match by a huge margin of 110 runs against Karaikudi Kaalai. Rajgopal Satish was the man of the match for his bowling performance. In the next match, they beat Siechem Madurai Panthers by 7 wickets. R. Silambarason was awarded the man of the match for his outstanding bowling performance (5/17). In the next match, VB Kanchi Veerans won by 58 runs against Tuti Patriots. Baba Aparajith, the captain of the team, was the man of the match. In the next two matches, Chepauk Super Gillies and Dindigul Dragons team beat VB Kanchi Veerans. In their last group league match, VB Kanchi Veerans won the match against BA11SY Trichy and qualified for the playoffs. In the eliminator match, VB Kanchi Veerans faced Siechem Madurai Panthers. Batting first, they made only 151 runs and the target of 152 was chased down by Siechem Madurai Panthers. This year the team could not make the fans happy despite raising hopes.

2020 TNPL Season

The 2020 season of the Tamil Nadu Premier League was suspended due to the Pandemic. No matches were played that season.

2021 TNPL Season

This season, Nellai Royal Kings finished in the 5th spot of the league's points table. In their first match, Nellai Royal Kings lost the match against Ruby Trichy Warriors by 74 runs. In the next match, they won the match against Chepauk Super Gillies by 7 wickets. This was Nellai Royal King's first win against the mighty Chepauk Super Gillies team. In the next match, Nellai Royal Kings lost the match against Idream Tiruppur Tamizhans by 3 wickets. In the next match, Nellai Royal Kings fought back and registered a win against Dindigul Dragons by 5 wickets. In the next match, Nellai Royal Kings won the match against Salem Spartans by 8 wickets. The player in the match was Baba Aparajith. Nellai Royal Kings did not qualify for the playoffs as they lost their last group league match against Lyca Kovai Kings by 7 runs.

2022 TNPL Season

The 2022 season of the Tamil Nadu Premier League was the best season for the Nellai Royal Kings team. This season, Nellai Royal Kings was the table topper and played Qualifier matches but could not reach the finals. In the first match of the season Nellai Royal Kings won the match against Chepauk Super Gillies in the super over. That was a nail-biting match. Next match, Nellai Royal Kings won the match against Salem Spartans by 5 wickets. G. Ajitesh was the man of the match. In their next match, Nellai Royal Kings won the match by 8 wickets against Dindigul Dragons. Sanjay Yadav was picked as the man of the match for his brilliant efforts. In their fourth match of the season, Nellai Royal Kings beat Siechem Madurai Panthers by 26 runs. Sanjay Yadav was brilliant with the bat in this match as he scored 70 runs in just 42 balls. In the next match, Nellai Royal Kings faced Idream Tiruppur Tamizhans and won the match by 6 wickets. This was Nellai Royal King's 5th consecutive win in that season. Next match they beat BA11SY Trichy and won by 66 runs. In this match, Sanjay Yadav scored a magnificent century (103 not out) and Aparajith scored 92 runs and missed his well-deserved century by just 8 runs. In the last match of the group stage, Nellai Royal Kings lost their first match of that season. Afterwards in the Qualifier 1 match, Nellai Royal Kings lost the match against Chepauk Super Gillies by 5 wickets. Then they got another chance to qualify for the final in Qualifier 2 match, but Nellai Royal Kings lost that match too against Lyca Kovai Kings by 2 wickets. This year the team could not make the fans happy despite raising hopes.

2023 TNPL Season

The 2023 Tamil Nadu Premier League has not yet started. This time Nellai Royal Kings have very good players in their squad who can win any match with their skills. Nellai Royal Kings are one of the contenders to champion this year.

Stats of Nellai Royal Kings Players

As a quite balanced team of TNPL Nellai Royal is successful to make good statistics in both batting and bowling throughout TNPL. Many talented players like Baba Aparajith, Sanjay Yadav, and Rahil Shah contributed in the batting and bowling both ways.

Top Run Scorers for Nellai Royal Kings

Name of the Player	Matches Played	Runs Scored	Average	Strike Rate
Sanjay Yadav	43	1135	36.61	152.76
Aparajith B	31	948	37.92	120.15
Baba Aparajith	12	570	63.33	162.39
Suryapprakash L	14	354	25.29	114.56
NS Chaturvedi	14	343	2.69	118.69

Top Wicket Takers for Nellai Royal Kings

Name of the Player	Matches Played	Wickets Taken	Average	Economy
Sanjay Yadav	43	21	42.71	7.51
Ragupathy Silambarason	17	19	21.42	8.09
Athisayaraj Davidson V	16	19	24.89	8.40
Aparajith B	31	17	23.24	7.31
Rahil Shah	14	16	22.81	7.02

With Baba Aparajith back as the captain for the 2023 season, the squad of Nellai Royal Kings will be looking to do something special so that they can lift the trophy for the first time in history. Moreover, the return of some players like Sanjay Yadav, NS Harish, and G. Ajitesh will help the camp to regain confidence and hence get back to their best. It is expected that this year Nellai Royal Kings will perform well and get deeper into the elimination stage and will win the champion's title for the first time.