Sony MAX to organise international series between left and righthanders

Having telecast the ARY Gold Cup in Sharjah recently, Sony MAX is now planning a series between left and right handers involving players from five different countries. Kacon Sethi, executive vice-president and general manager of Sony Max said, "For the first time in the world, MAX will be conducting a series of three one-day international cricket matches between a team of lefties and righties."

On the commercial success of the channel after the Sharjah triseries, Sethi said, "we earned around Rs 15 crore without India while we might have earned about Rs 30 crore with India as the third team."

Besides conducting the three-match series between lefties and righties, Sethi said the channel will also telecast live India's tour of Sri Lanka where the teams will play three Test matches and a triangular series involving India, Sri Lanka and New Zealand in August-September this year.

The channel has also got exclusive rights for the Zimbabwe and England tours of Bangladesh. The Zimbabwe tour of Sri Lanka comprising three Test matches followed by a triangular one-day series between Sri Lanka, West Indies and Zimbabwe will also be shown live early next year, Sethi said.

Other tournaments to be telecast by the channel include Pakistan's tour of Bangladesh and West Indies tour of Sri Lanka early next year, she added.

The matches between lefties and righties will be played on May three, five and six at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai, she said and added that all the matches will be played under flood lights and will start at 3 p.m on all these days.

The teams: Lefthanders (from): Saurav Ganguly, Sanath Jayasuriya, Chris Harris, Roger Twose, Robin Singh, Russel Arnold, Hashan Tillakaratne, Yuvraj Singh, Chaminda Vaas, Sunil Joshi, Nuwan Zoysa, Zaheer Khan and Kumara Sangakkara.

Righthanders (from): Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, V V S Laxman, Nathan Astle, Craig McMillan, Aravinda De Silva, Adam Bacher, Javagal Srinath, Paul Reiffel, Marvan Atapattu, Romesh Kaluwitharana, Harbhajan Singh and Nikhil Chopra.