Mumbai: India opener Gautam Gambhir and Red Bull, the energy drink manufacturer, on Monday announced an Asian tri-nation college cricket series -- Red Bull Campus Cricket-- involving colleges from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
The Indian leg of the championship will features top colleges from Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune and Chandigarh during the month of March and April.
The four college teams from each city will play two knock out matches and a city final. The winner teams from the eight cities play each other in the quarter final and semis to make it to the national finals.
Winners from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will play a tournament to win the Red Bull Campus Cricket championship.
"The reason Red Bull India and I came up with this event is because today college cricket isn`t taken too seriously. There are great players out there in colleges, but they don`t really have a platform.
"We also believe that conducting a South Asian competition will benefit the upcoming crop of cricketers by exposing them to international conditions early on. And if the tournament results in try-outs for county teams in England, it can lay the platform for creating better rounded and complete cricketers," Gambhir said.
"The young cricketers will be coached and guided by the likes of ex-Indian wicket-keeper Dinesh Mongia, upcoming talent Varun Aaron, Sachin Tendulkar`s fitness trainer Amog Pandit and chief consultant of Red Bull Campus Cricket and former Karnataka player Ashwin Punja.
PTI
