Former India skipper and Chairman of Selectors K. Srikkanth hailed the revival of the All India Buchi Babu invitational cricket tournament organised by the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA).
The tournament returns after a five-year break with the last edition held in 2017.
“The revival of Buchi Babu is important for the revival of First-Class cricket. I am happy that TNCA is reviving it as a four-day format as it is the stepping stone into big league cricket,” said Srikkanth at the launch event of the tournament on Thursday.
“You had some of the biggest names like Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri, Roger Binny, G.R. Viswanath and so on play in this event. If you do well in this tournament, you used to get recognised at an all-India level. You wanted to do well against the Indian players because it was a great learning curve and exposure for us,” Srikkanth added, who recalled watching Gavaskar for the first time when the latter played for ACC against Jolly Rovers in 1971.
TNCA secretary R.I. Palani said, “This is the biggest-budgeted Buchi Babu event with 12 teams playing in four cities (Salem, Coimbatore, Dindigul and Tirunelveli) and, for the first time, will be played outside Chennai. It used to be the curtain-raiser for the domestic season, and we are playing in the four-day format for the first time to make it an ideal preparation for the Ranji Trophy.”
The 12 teams have been divided into four groups of three, with the group toppers progressing to the semifinals. The final will be held in Coimbatore, while Take Sports will be the title sponsor for the next three years.
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