ICPL T20 to kick off on January 16
After the resounding success of the inaugural edition in 2011, Jain University-Centre for Management Studies’ College Premier League (CPL) Twenty20 is going international in its second edition.
The International College Premier League T20, as it will be called, will have 54 teams fighting it out for top honours from January 16-26, with a total prize money of over Rs 2 lakh at stake. Some of Karnataka’s top colleges — St Joseph’s College, Christ College, hosts CMS, among others — will vie for title with colleges from Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata.
The T20 extravaganza will be played on a knockout-cum-league basis, the qualifying rounds begin on December 4, with 24 Karnataka teams playing their qualifying matches (knockout) at the St John’s Medical College grounds (Koramangala) out of which 12 teams will progress to the league stage.
The outstation teams will play their qualifying round matches in their six respective cities and one team will advance to the league phase from each city. The international teams will directly enter the league stage in January. Three teams — Beaconhouse National University (Lahore), American University of Sharjah and a college from Nepal — have confirmed their participation.
Teams from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom (UK) are yet to confirm their participation.
Speaking at the press meet to announce the tournament, former Indian cricketer Vijay Bharadwaj said the event was a great platform for budding cricketers. “It is a wonderful opportunity for some young players to come through and exhibit their talent and maybe play at a higher level later on,’’ he said.
