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Chandigarh Lions takes on Ahmedabad Rockets today

Special Correspondent

CHANDIGARH: Before the impending comparisons with the Indian Premier League start next month, the Indian Cricket League’s Edelweiss 20s Challenge appears determined to make a big impact when its second edition begins at the Panchkula Stadium on Sunday.

Eight teams, including two new entrants, will battle it out for loads of money over the next four weeks with 34 matches hosted at Hyderabad, Gurgaon and here.

With the ICL announcing a corpus of $3.08 million, the players have plenty to play for. The winner’s share of Rs. 2.5 crore apart of the incentive of Rs. 25 lakh for winning each league game should bring out inspired performances from the teams.

For the host of youngsters, who chose financial security by giving up their aspirations to play for the country, the only hope is that their exploits in ICL get noticed by the masses in the country.

Sensing that the inaugural edition last winter lacked visibility, the organisers have signed up with Ten Sports to share the live feed with Zee Sports for all matches.

More teams likely

ICL’s Executive Board Member Kiran More addressed mediapersons here on Saturday, ahead of Sunday’s inaugural match between runner-up Chandigarh Lions and new addition Ahmedabad Rockets and said, “We plan to add more teams with every passing edition. Now that we have added two new teams, slowly we will have city teams from other countries, like we started with Lahore Badshahs this time.”

Chris Cairns, the Kiwi all-rounder who leads Chandigarh Lions, declared that the team was “all fired up” to do well in the competition. “It is great to see two new teams joining the competition. I am sure we are in for great times,” said the dashing all-rounder.

Australian Damien Martyn heads Ahmedabad Rockets that includes his countryman Jason Gillespie, West Indian Wavell Hinds, Zimbabweans Heath Streak and Murray Goodwin. Reetinder Sodhi, S. Sriram and Rakesh Patel are among the better known names in the team coached by former England spinner John Emburey.

This year, the inclusion of Lahore Badshahs has indeed provided a fresh flavour.

With Moin Khan as coach and Inzamam-ul Haq as captain, and names like Azhar Mahmood, Imran Farhat, Imran Nazir, Mushtaq Ahmed and Saqlain Mushtaq, the team is likely to draw a lot of spectators.

Similarly, New Zealand’s paceman Shane Bond has added an element of curiosity by joining Delhi Giants.

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