By 121 News
Chandigarh March 17, 2021:- The 10th year anniversary of the only global cricket tournament for university students, Red Bull Campus Cricket has been under way in India across 32 cities with city qualifiers from 17th February to discover and nurture budding cricketers from college campuses. The Indian Premier League franchise Rajasthan Royals deepens their association with the energy drink giant Red Bull in India and plans to continue scouting talent from the annual international T20 tournament for college cricket teams – Red Bull Campus Cricket
Red Bull Campus Cricket 2021 city qualifiers took place from 17th February to 15th March across 32 cities in India – Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Jammu, Dharamshala, Dehradun, Jaipur, Delhi, Meerut and Lucknow in the North; Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Indore, Nagpur, Raipur, Mumbai, Pune and Goa in the West; Jamshedpur, Ranchi, Patna, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, Guwahati and Agartala in the East; Bangalore, Coimbatore, Mysore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Vizag in the South. Like last year, RBCC will find their Kochi city champions through their association with Kerala College Premier League T20 Championship which started in February.
The winning college from each city will then proceed to the zonal/regional finals in April. The top two teams from each zone in RBCC will then compete in the National finals in June first week, where the teams will play in the knockout rounds of quarterfinals, semifinals and finals respectively. The National winner will then represent India in the Red Bull Campus Cricket 2021 World Finals. Past winners from India that have gone on to represent the country at the World Championships are Rizvi College, Mumbai; DAV College, Chandigarh; Swami Shraddhanand College, Delhi; MMC College, Pune.
Last year, The Red Bull Campus Cricket National Finals were held at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow with COVID-19 protocols undertaken. Eight of the best cricket universities in the country faced off to be crowned the Red Bull Campus Cricket National Finals winner. In an exciting final game between DAV College Jalandhar and Subodh College Jaipur, saw DAV College Jalandhar emerge victorious and crowned the Red Bull Campus Cricket National Finals winners.
A recent success story from Red Bull Campus Cricket is Tamil Nadu batsman Shahrukh Khan who was picked up by Punjab Kings for a whopping 5.25 crore at the recently concluded IPL auction. Shahrukh Khan was the Red Bull Campus Cricket National Final man of the tournament as he guided Hindustan College from Chennai to the finals of the 2019 edition of Red Bull Campus Cricket. He also got selected for Red Bull Campus Cricket Player Tryouts with Rajasthan Royals at Institute of Sports, Talegaon, Nagpur in the first week of December of 2019. He also became a part of the IPL 2020 auction but was unsold but got noticed because of his name.
On the importance of Red Bull Campus Cricket shaping his career, Shahrukh Khan said that he personally wanted to win the tournament for his team but we, unfortunately, lost it. How he saw it was this would be a chance for him, if I did well there, he would have chance to get picked. Rajasthan Royals had called him for a trial after watching him play at Red Bull Campus Cricket. It was a very good experience for him.
On the association with Red Bull Campus Cricket, Jake Lush McCrum, COO of Rajasthan Royals said that we are proud to be associated with Red Bull in such a powerful initiative to provide a platform to young talent. This competition also gives us an opportunity to identify potential IPL stars of the future and the talent at our trials was very impressive. With the big IPL auction occurring next year, it is a great opportunity for these young players to prove themselves and earn a trial with our franchise that could lead to a place in our squad.
KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Aiden Markram, Lungi Ngidi, Niroshan Dickwella & Chirag Suri are six players who went on to make their names in international cricket for their respective countries by using the Red Bull Campus Cricket platform. Red Bull athlete KL Rahul was the top scorer in the 2013 edition of the competition and credits RBCC for his success at the domestic and international level.
Cricketers like Manan Vohra, Shardul Thakur, Karun Nair, Shashank Singh, Siddhesh Lad, Himanshu Rana, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Anukul Roy, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Ricky Bhui have also reaped the benefits of Red Bull Campus Cricket.
This year will also see the inauguration of the first ever Red Bull Campus Cricket Women's edition led by Red Bull athlete and star India batsman Smriti Mandhana. The aim of the tournament is to boost the increasing participation of young and aspiring women cricketers at the university and grassroots level. The women's competition will be held in four zones – north, south, east and west – with the winners of the zonal editions going on to play in the national finals. The winner of the national final will be declared the best women's college cricket team in India. A few players participating in the women's championship will also get an amazing opportunity to interact with Smriti Mandhana.
No comments:
Post a Comment