UP Cricket League: The first edition of the Uttar Pradesh (UP) Cricket League will be held from August 23 onwards. To note, the announcement for the tournament was done by the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association in July this year with all the matches being played at the Green Park, Kanpur.
Another headache for BCCI ahead of WC as fire breaks out at Eden Gardens
It must be noted that the state has been divided into six zones – Lucknow, Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Noida and Meerut – so that players from all parts of the state can participate in the tournament. Talking to TOI, UPCA CEO Ankit Chatterjee said, “UPT20 League will be a franchise-based tournament which is likely to start in the last week of August or first week of September. Selection of players will be made from three categories.
Category A will have those who have played for UP Ranji team and IPL. Category B will have players who have played Under-23 and Under-19 tournaments while category C will include budding players. Approximately 150 players have been included in the auction list. All the matches will be played at Green Park Stadium in Kanpur,” he added.
The tournament will also have the live streaming of the match. The organizers are also expecting JioCinema and Disney Star to bid for digital media rights for the first edition. Mukesh Ambani backed JioCinema are frontrunner to win the race to broadcast the tournament as they are reportedly looking to bid higher than their counterparts. The likes of Rinku Singh, Akshdeep Nath, Zeeshan Ansari, Karan Singh and even Bhuvneshwar Kumar might feature in the inaugural edition.