Gautam Gambhir at the Yamuna Sports Complex. (Express Photo) East Delhi BJP MP Gautam Gambhir is planning to hold a T20 cricket tournament, featuring teams from the 10 constituencies of East Delhi, at the upgraded Yamuna Sports Complex.
Touted as the East Delhi Premier League, the tournament will have three selectors who have played cricket at the international level. Teams from the constituencies – Jangpura, Okhla, Trilokpuri, Kondli, Patparganj, Laxmi Nagar, Vishwas Nagar, Shahdara,
Krishna Nagar and Gandhi Nagar – would be selected after trials.
Gambhir told The Indian Express that the tournament will start from the last week of October and go on till November. He said special coaches, sports kits for players, physiologists, and other facilities that players get at the domestic level would be made available.
“The age criteria will be between 17 and 36 years. Trials would be held, and international-level players would select players from each constituency… transparency would be ensured in these trials and only people who are residents of the constituency can represent the teams,” he said.
Each team would be auctioned after fixing a base price and the money generated from the sponsors would be used to provide facilities to players. “The idea is to give good cricketing experiences to people of the constituency. In the process, if we find talented players whose potential has gone unnoticed due to lack of facilities, they would be further groomed,” said the cricketer turned politician.
Whether spectators would be able to see these matches or not would depend on the Covid protocol during that time, he added.
The matches would be held at the Yamuna Sports Complex which was recently upgraded to Ranji Trophy standards with two international-level dressing rooms , four pitches, practice pitches, flood lights, electronic scoreboard, canopies, dressing room, sponsors box, and a side screen.
The idea is to use the IPL format, where there are sponsors, jerseys, mentors, and replicate it at the local level, said an aide of Gambhir.
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