TheSportsCampus

< Prev		Next >

Kings XI Punjab, the IPL franchise team commenced its activities for the upcoming IPL season with the second edition of the KXIP Cup being announced in Chandigarh today. KXIP Cup focuses on promoting young and budding cricketers at the grassroot level in the KXIP catchment area.

The KXIP Cup is a T-20 tournament played in a round robin format comprising five teams. Last season the teams consisted of players invited from the four state associations in the catchment area. This year the format has been enhanced wherein players are invited from across the country and teams have been handpicked to promote and encourage talent. The teams are named KXIP Red, KXIP Blue, KXIP Green, KXIP Yellow and KXIP Sliver and are led by captains Uday Kaul, Reetendra Singh Sodhi, Vikramjeet Malik, Bipul Sharma and Tanmay Srivastava respectively.

Last year, three budding cricketers - Taruvar Kohli, Amanpreet Singh and Vikramjit Malik were spotted and got a chance to be part of the KXIP team. Shortlisted players from this year's selection will go to the KXIP Academy jointly promoted by PCA and the franchise.

Speaking on the occasion, Anil Srivatsa, CEO, Kings XI Punjab said, "We are very happy and excited to be back amongst our fans and well wishers for IPL 2010. This tournament gives players who aspire to play for Kings XI Punjab, a chance to make their dreams come true. The objective is to spot and encourage talent at the grassroots level, giving them a once in a lifetime opportunity to share space with some of the best cricketers in the world. With a good balance of domestic and foreign players, we are all geared up and ready to take Season III by storm."

Speaking on the occasion, Col. Arvinder Singh, Senior Vice President & Head of Cricket Operations, KXIP, said, "KXIP Cup last year was a huge success in mining local talent and has now encouraged us to do it all over again this year. We expect this tournament to be as exciting and intense as last year and will provide young cricketers a platform to showcase their talent. We wish the players all the luck for this tournament."

The tournament will be conducted in Chandigarh and Mohali over a period of six days starting January 9, 2010 - January 14, 2010. The tournament will be organized at the Cricket Stadium, Sector 16, Chandigarh and the finals are scheduled to take place at the PCA Stadium, Mohali on January 14, 2010.