Top players to play in meet

Airtel T20 Cricket

(From left) The secretary of Sports Club of Assam, Sajjad Z. Hussain, organising committee president Rajesh Borah and Airtel chief operating officer for the Northeast, Sudipto Chowdhury, hold the tournament trophy at Nehru Stadium in Guwahati on Wednesday. Picture by Eastern Projections Guwahati, Feb 26 : The 2nd Airtel Santosh Kumar Roy All-India Twenty20 cricket tournament will be organised by the Sports Club of Assam at the Nehru Stadium here from March 1 to 8, where some leading cricketers of the nation are taking part. With the current internationals from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Bengal taking part in the Vijay Hazare Trophy finals in Agartala from February 28 to March 9, a number of the second string national team members are expected to be representing clubs from the states concerned. The organising committee president and junior national selector, Rajesh Borah, said, “Some of the leading players who will take part are J. Arunkumar, Ravneet Singh Ricky, R.R. Parida, Gagandeep Singh, Rajat Bhatia, Sonu Sharma and others representing Air India.” “Besides, Jyoti Yadav is a certainty in the RS Academy team while Piyush Chawla and Joginder Sharma, who fashioned India’s Twenty20 World Cup victory, are also expected to represent the outfit,” he added. About the tournament, Borah said altogether 10 teams, including five from outside the state, are participating. The clubs from outside the state are Air India, Delhi, Food Corporation of India, Delhi, RS Academy, Delhi, Manipur XI and Cricket Association of Bengal XI. The local clubs involved are Bud Cricket Club, last year’s runners-up Guwahati Cricket Coaching Centre, Gauhati Town Club, Silchar XI and Radial Club, Nagaon. Asked about NF Railway, Santipur Athletic Club and other leading local clubs, organising secretary Sajjad Z. Hussain said they were not invited. Borah, however, said the railwaymen could not participate for clash of dates with the semi-finals of the senior inter-district cricket tournament. “We have decided to involve more teams from different parts of the country in order to give an opportunity to the players of our state to play more cricket against their counterparts from better rated states. We hope the exposure will certainly help improve our players’ skills,” said Sudipto Chowdhury, chief operating officer of Bharti Airtel, Northeast. “Test player Murali Karthik will inaugurate the tournament and junior selection committee chairman Abey Kuruvilla will be the chief guest during the closing ceremony,” Borah said. “We are offering Rs 1 lakh to the winners and Rs 50,000 to the runners-up this time. There will be a hike in the individual awards too,” he said. He said at least five former cricketers of the state would be felicitated on the occasion. Borah also said there would be a traditional touch to the cheerleading aspect. “We propose to provide traditional costumes to the cheerleaders and mix traditional dance occasionally,” he added.