WSB Yearbook 2011-2012

VENKY’S MUMBAI FIGHTERS FRANCHISE, GROUP A A team created in cricket-mad India, the Venky’s Mumbai Fighters captured the imagination of a whole new legion of fans with their performances in their debut WSB season. The Franchise was built around a core of national boxers with the aim to introduce a sport to a whole new audience. Drawn in Group A, they faced the prospect early on of battling it out with some of the very best teams in the competition.

It was difficult for them to compete against the experienced teams around them but the 5:0 win versus Los Angeles Matadors in week four was the confidence booster that the team needed before the winter-break.

However, the superior quality in their main rivals’ squads in Group A meant that they barely scraped through to the knock-out stages.

In the quarter-finals, they faced an unbeaten Baku Fires which had won every single one of their matches in the group stages, but undaunted Venky’s Mumbai Fighters stunned the visitors in the first leg to inflict a first defeat of the season to the Azeri Franchise. Charly Suarez and Uaine Fa, two of the team’s leading lights, were the chief instigators as the Indian team did the business in front of their home fans to win 3:2. They lost the return fixture but learnt a great deal.

With huge market potential and with raucous support, the Venky’s Mumbai Fighters will come back for the third season with a much stronger set-up which promises to see them challenge for honours come the end of the campaign.