57th ‘Sahara City Homes Sheesh Mahal Cricket tournament’ from 31st May 2010
For the first time, the tournament will be played in T20 format With White Ball, and players will be donning coloured clothing
8 teams from across India, constituting many National and International level players to participate in the tournament
Lucknow, May 25, 2010: Sahara City Homes under the aegis of Sahara India Pariwar today announced the commencement of the 57th annual All India ‘Sahara City Homes Sheesh Mahal cricket tournament’ from 31st May 2010. One of the premier and oldest summer tournament of the country, which was earlier played in 40-40 format, will now be played in T20 format for the first time, with coloured clothing for players and with white ball. The tournament will also feature players of national and international level.
There will be eight teams participating for the title of the prestigious trophy. The teams will be divided into 2 pools with 4 teams in each pool. The teams of Indian Oil, ONGC, Maharashtra Cricket Association and ITC are placed in Pool A while Pool B includes the teams of Air India, Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association, India Post and Sahara India.
Adopted by Sahara in the year 2006, ‘Sahara City Homes Sheesh Mahal Cricket Tournament’ will be played on a league cum knock out basis. The matches will be played at K.D. Singh Babu Stadium and Chowk Stadium with 2 matches on each ground on 31st May, 1st June and 2nd June 2010. The first match of the day will commence at 6:30 a.m. and the second match will start at 10:00 a.m. on both grounds. The semi-finals will be played on 4th of June 2010. The final match for the title of ‘57th Sahara City Homes Sheesh Mahal Cricket Tournament’ will be played on 5th June with a reserve day for final on 6th June 2010.
The tournament which is one of the oldest and the most acclaimed national cricket events has seen many cricket legends playing for the Cup. Sahara has plans to develop the event as one of the major cricket tournaments of the sub-continent in the coming years. This will help the development of the game at ground level and will provide the international exposure to the local players from different parts of the nation.
On this occasion Shri Abhijit Sarkar, Head - Corporate Communications, Sahara India Pariwar said, “We are proud to announce the 57th ‘Sahara City Homes Sheesh Mahal Cricket tournament. Keeping our promise of taking this tournament to new heights, this time we have introduced many new additions to the tournament. Without compromising with the sprit of the tournament we are sure this will make a treat to the players and the audience as well.”
About Sahara India Pariwar
Sahara India Pariwar is a multi-business conglomerate with diversified business interests that include Finance, Real Estate, Media & Entertainment, Tourism & Hospitality, Consumables, and Services & Trading.
The sponsor of Indian Cricket and Hockey, Sahara India Pariwar, had earlier, adopted Indian Boxing, Wrestling and Archery and very recently, Indian Shooting in addition to covering support of a total of 56 sportsmen in these four games until after London Olympics 2012. The group, in order to uplift sports at domestic and grass root level, supports the legendary Calcutta Football League, Sheesh Mahal Cricket Tournament and many other sports at the national, state and district levels. The group has extended its sponsorship to the Uttar Pradesh senior cricket team which represents the state in Ranji and all other domestic tournaments. Earlier, in the year 2009, Sahara had initiated ‘The Sahara Indian Sports Awards’ with an intention to bring together all sports, including those which are very popular and also those which are not so popular, together on a common platform to recognize and honour the achievements of Indian sportspersons who have taken the pride of the nation to the highest level and kept the tricolor flying high. The awards are aimed to provide a forum of encouragement to young sporting talents and motivate them to bring laurels to the nation and sports. Recently, the Sahara Group, under its company Sahara Adventure Sports Limited, has bagged the franchise for Pune IPL team by making the highest bid ever in IPL.
