Twenty-four teams from various schools of the city will compete in ten week-long tournament.
A day after Sachin Tendulkar bid adieu to the test cricket, a Kids Premier League (KPL) started in the city on Sunday, ostensibly to search for next cricketing legend.
A first of its kind initiative in Indore, the 10 week-long tournament will have 24 teams comprising students from class 3 to class 8 of different schools of the city.
The matches, which started on Nov 17 and are played at SS Infinitus grounds, will be held on consecutive Sundays till January 19, 2014.
"Children of this age group grow up watching cricket on television but do not get opportunity to actually take part in tournaments of such standards. This tournament is a golden opportunity for kids to showcase their talent," head coach of the tournament Kapil Shendge told dna.
The teams were formed after conducting trials on over 1000 students from 10 different schools of the city.
Vaibhav Khandelwal of SS group, organisers of the tournament, said, "We want to provide kids a platform at a very nascent stage of their lives. We had been planning this for long and thankfully schools also showed an equal interest in the idea."
The teams have been divided in three categories; Juniors (class 3 and 4), Seniors (class 5 and 6) and Super-seniors (class 7 and 8). Each category has eight teams and each team has been constituted in such a way that students from different schools play together as a team but do not represent their schools. “It helps kids develops team spirit and coordination,” said Shendge.
“We are trying to rope in cricketing legends Sunil Gavaskar and Virendra Sehwag for the prize distribution ceremony on January 19,” said an SS group representative.
The group will also sponsor talented kids for further training. On Sunday, the children also planted ‘Sachin Infinitus Tree’ (a banyan tree) in the township and women painted a 50 sqft rangoli of Sachin Tendulkar against tri-color background.
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