Bengaluru, July 17 (Representative) Staying true to their commitment of providing young and aspiring cricketers the right platform to shine, Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) announced the launch of Maharaja Trophy KSCA T20, a marquee Twenty20 cricket tournament organised in the memory of the HRH late Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar, the former President of KSCA and Maharaja of Mysuru. The tournament will be held between August 7 to August 26.Unveiling the coveted trophy and the logo today in a star-studded ceremony was KSCA President Roger Binny, KSCA Secretary Santosh Menon and KSCA Treasurer Vinay Mruthyunjaya. Reminiscent of the Bradman Cup, which became the country’s first-ever Twenty20 tournament held in 2005, inny said, “KSCA had set the ball rolling for an all-new format of the game, way back in 2005, giving India its first taste of a T20 game through the Bradman Cup.” “Subsequently, the Karnataka Premier League was launched in 2009 and we saw eight successful editions of this entertaining league which saw many young stars emerge.
With an aim to continue to provide our cricketers with the right platform to perform and be ready for the next big leap in their cricketing career, we have decided to roll out the Maharaja Trophy KSCA T20,” he added. The legendary all-rounder and winner of the ICC Men’s World Cup 1983 also unveiled the logo and the Maharaja-themed trophy which is carefully crafted with an engraved metal pillar adorned by 11 solid wings that suggests the number of players in a cricket team. The tournament will see six teams representing Bengaluru, Mysuru, Hubballi, Shivamogga, Raichur and Mangalore vie for top honours. “The Maharaja Trophy KSCA T20 will commence on 7th August in Mysore with the first leg of matches being held at the Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar Ground in Mysore. A total of 18 matches will be held in Mysore followed by a total of 16 matches including the final being held in Bengaluru at the Chinnaswamy Stadium,” Menon said. “All the top cricketers within the age bracket of 35 years will be eligible to take part in the tournament. The teams will be formed through a player draft, and KSCA will nominate the Captains and Vice Captains for the teams and we will assign support staff for each of the six teams.” he added. The two-week T20 extravaganza will provide emerging stars from the state an opportunity to perform in front of packed-stadiums, under floodlights and bask in the limelight with all matches being telecast live on Star Sports 2 and Star Sports Kannada. It will also be live streamed on the Fancode app for larger consumption.
“Through the process of inviting expression of interest from corporates for team sponsorship and naming rights, Cycle Argarbattis, Kalyani Motors, Jindal Steels, Fiza Developers and infrastructure Pvt Ltd, Gulbarga Megaspeed and Micon Engineers (Hubli) have been named as team sponsors for Bengaluru, Hubballi, Mysuru, Mangaluru, and Raichur respectively. We are in the process of finalising a team sponsor for Shivamogga,” Mruthyunjaya said. “There will be no involvement of team sponsors in selecting playing XI, or any other aspects of the game. All the commercial rights and cricketing rights will be held by KSCA alone,” he added. Karnataka’s top cricketers including Devdutt Padikkal, Shreyas Gopal, K Gowtham, Manish Pandey, J Suchith, Karun Nair, Mayank Agarwal, Abhinav Manohar, KC Cariappa, Pravin Dubey and Abhimanyu Mithun are expected to feature in the Maharaja Trophy KSCA T20.