Vidarbha starts T20 preparation with brand new league

No fancy names, no franchise, only pure cricket spread across six teams to identify the best players for Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament.

The VCA Stadium in Nagpur is the venue for all the matches.

Two-time Ranji Trophy champion Vidarbha is now hungry for success in the white-ball formats. To identify the best T20 players in the region, the Vidarbha Cricket Association started a six-team T20 League in Nagpur on Tuesday.

The teams are divided into Red, Blue, Green, Orange, Yellow and Sky Blue. There are no fancy names or team owners. “This is a new tournament by the VCA. We have balanced out the teams spreading out the boys. There are no franchises. We formed the teams depending on the requirements,” Anand Jaiswal, president, VCA told Sportstar .

“Everybody from the pool gets a chance to establish themselves for Syed Mushtaq Ali T20,” he added.

At least, 80 players are expected to feature in the 17-day tournament that has provided a fillip to the T20 format in the region; the monsoons had washed out Bapuna Cup and Guzder League.

The matches are being streamed live on Fancode, adding to the visibility of players.

Even Assam had organised a T20 Challenge, but that was a franchise-based tournament with Barak Bravehearts emerging victorious.

Pritam Gandhe and Ganesh Satish will continue as coach and captain of Vidarbha respectively in the upcoming season that starts with the shortest format from November 4.