KSCA Maharaja T20 Trophy to be held from June 20 to July 12 in Mysuru, Hubballi

Bengaluru: The KSCA Maharaja T20 Trophy will be held from June 20 to July 12 in Mysuru and Hubballi, with six franchises set to battle for the spoils.

The tournament will be held in three phases, kicking off in Mysuru, then moving on to Hubballi before climaxing in Mysuru.

The auctions for the tournament are expected to be held in Alur on June 4 with each team having a maximum purse of Rs 60 lakh. The franchises can pick players from a pool of around 130-150 that’ll be curated by the State senior selection committee. Franchises will have to buy a minimum of 16 players and sign a maximum of 18 with two extra catchment area players allowed as extras.

The six franchises announced by KSCA at a press conference on Friday at the Chinnaswamy Stadium are: (1) Bengaluru (Kalyani Motors), (2) Mysuru (Natural Essentials Oils Limited, Cycle Agarbatti), (3) Hubballi (Jindal Steel), (4) Raichur (Micon Engineers Hubli Pvt Ltd), (5) Mangaluru (Klene Paks Ltd), (6) Shivamogga (ICS Mobile Pvt Ltd).

Sony Sports has been identified as the terrestrial broadcast partner with KSCA still on the lookout for a streaming service provider.

Meanwhile, KSCA said its is looking at conducting the Maharani Cup, the corresponding event for women, but is yet to identify a window owing to the finalisation of franchises.

“Our intention is to hold the Maharani Cup also on the same scale as Maharaja Trophy,” said KSCA secretary Santosh Menon during a news conference on Friday.

“So far, six franchises have expressed interest but we don’t have such a huge talent pool in the State. So we have limited it to four. We are in the process of finalising the four. Once that is ready, we will progress to the next step. Eventually, we want to have the two tournaments in close proximity.”