J&K Cricket Association (JKCA) has started process of starting the biggest ever T20 cricket tournament, J&K Premier League (JKPL) that is going to witness participation of more than 600 teams only in Kashmir division.
The JKPL tournament committee held team draws on Monday in District Pulwama and Shopian. The committee comprises of former cricketers, Mansoor Ahmad, Nisar Khanday and Mohammad Aslam. The draw of matches for Pulwama and Shopian were held in presence of respective District Forum officials.
In District Pulwama, 44 teams have registered for the event who were divided into two pools. In District Shopian 48 teams have registered for the event who were divided into two pools. The draws for District Kulgam couldn’t be held on Monday and are likely to be held on Tuesday.
The matches of the biggest T20 event of the state would be played on knockout format. Earlier committee held draws for the matches and pools in district Anantnag on Saturday. In District Anantnag 112 teams have registered for the tournament who were divided by committee into four pools. The matches of district would be played at four different venues.
According to committee officials JKPL is open tournament for which JKCA invited teams for registration from any part of State. The event will be held simultaneously in both provinces of State.
“It is biggest event that I am part of so far in my cricketing career. The magnitude of the event looks too big and it is going to witness participation of more than 600 teams in Kashmir province only. I have been part of many events but participation wise it will be biggest ever,” said committee member Mansoor Ahmad.
He said that after South Kashmir, draws would be held in North Kashmir then central Kashmir including Srinagar.
“Similar kind of team draws would be held in North Kashmir’s , Baramullah, Bandipora, Kupwara, Sopore and other areas. Then we will move to Budgam, Ganderbal as well as Srinagar. Apart from other districts we are expecting huge number of teams from Srinagar. Everyone knows there are too many teams ready to register for the event in Srinagar,” he said.
About the time frame in which event would be completed, he said, ” With so many teams involved nothing can said about the time it would take for the completion. However, we are looking into every possibility of finishing it as early as possible. For that we are exploring new venues in every district so that matches would be conducted at multiple grounds on same day”.