Indian stars to adorn inaugural Twenty20 tournament
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The business end of the all-India Inter-State Twenty20 cricket tournament kicks off in Ahmedabad and Mumbai from April 15 with a host of national players set to participate. The Mumbai leg of the matches will be shared between the Wankhede Stadium and the Brabourne Stadium while Motera will host the Ahmedabad games.
Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan will turn out for their respective state sides and their presence is expected to infuse much-needed spectator interest in the aftermath of India's early exit from the World Cup in West Indies. In addition, several young players on the fringes of national selection will also get a chance to impress. The tournament should serve as a selection trial for the national selectors when they sit down on April 20 to pick the squad for the tour of Bangladesh beginning next month. The tournament runs till April 21, with two matches scheduled daily in the group stages.
All ten qualifying teams have been divided into two groups of five each. Mumbai will host all Group A matches while all Group B games will be held in Ahmedabad. The Brabourne Stadium, which hosted a few Champions Trophy games last year, will host the final on April 21. The day games are scheduled to start at 09.30 local time while the evening games, under lights, will begin at 6.30 PM.
Jharkhand and Delhi failed to qualify, which means that the big-hitters in Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virender Sehwag will not be seen in action. It took a while for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to embrace Twenty20 after several Test nations included it in their domestic fixtures. The upcoming Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa in September may have been the catalyst for the BCCI to slot a tournament of this format in an already crowded domestic schedule.
Incidentally, India were the last Test nation to make their debut in a Twenty20 International, during the tour of South Africa last year. India beat South Africa by six wickets in a closely-fought game at Johannesburg, proving that Twenty20 is here to stay as far as India is concerned.