Legendary India cricketer and 1983 World Cup winning captain Kapil Dev, was one of the main guests at the launch of the second season of Wonder Cement’s Saath7 Cricket Mahotsav, at an event in Delhi on Wednesday.
During the press conference of the event, Kapil said, “I was part of the first season as well and I enjoyed it thoroughly. It was heartening to see so many kids playing and giving their all, who otherwise don’t get a chance to play. We are expecting the same – if not better – this time as well.”
The first edition of the tournament – which was played in 2015/16 – saw tremendous success in Rajasthan and because of that, the organizers haveexhibited to conduct the matches in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh this time.
Talking about the same, Wonder Cement’s director, Vivek Pani said, “We are going step by step. The kind of response we got in the first season was enormous in Rajasthan and that’s why we are taking it to other more states this time. Hopefully, we will keep on growing in the future as well.”
The format of this tournament is pretty short and simple – the teams consist of seven players each and the innings are also of seven overs each. However, if a team possesses a woman in their ranks, they are awarded seven bonus runs.
Describing the idea, Wonder Cement’s management advisor, Tarun Singh said, “The idea behind this is to increase the participation of women cricketers in the tournament. However, it doesn’t mean that a team will be awarded 49 runs if they have seven woman cricketers in their ranks. Be it 1 or 7, the team will be awarded seven bonus runs only.”
This year, the teams will be playing in three states, with the final to be played in Udaipur. After 15 matches between the 16 shortlisted teams, one winning team will emerge as the ‘Team of Tehsils’.
It has been expected that there will be around 48,000 players will take part this year, which is much more that of the last season of the tournament. However, Kapil Dev announced the biggest prize of the tournament during the press conference in Delhi. He said, “I would like to announce that I would reward the best player of the tournament with INR 1 Lakh. When we were kids, we liked to receive rewards for performing well and so I would like to do so for these kids now.”
