Twenty20 cricket is all set to make its official debut in India.
Come Friday, six teams would slug it out in the Unibic Twenty20 cricket championship for the Bradman Cup in Bangalore.
The teams are Karnataka State Cricket Association, Bradman World XI and Chemplast in Group A, and New South Wales, Air India and Cricket Association of Bengal in Group B.
The tournament will feature many of the known names of international cricket with the three-day contest promising to throw up some pulsating duels.
Bradman World XI appears to be the favourite on paper. It boasts of the likes of Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal and Mohammad Sami from Pakistan, Romesh Kaluwitharana and Russel Arnold from Sri Lanka and India's Ajit Agarkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Javagal Srinath.
Mahela Jayawardene of Sri Lanka, who was scheduled to take part, is not coming. Also missing from the list is South Africa's Lance Klusener.
Chemplast team would feature India fast bowler Laxmipathy Balaji. The six teams would play on the league-cum-knockout basis a twenty over game.
The first day would see three matches: CAB vs Air India (11.30 am IST), NSW vs Air India (3 pm) and Bradman XI vs KSCA (6.30 pm); on Saturday NSW would take on CAB (3 pm), while Bradman XI will clash with Chemplast (6.30 pm).
KSCA is pitted against Chemplast on Sunday (3 pm), followed by the final at 6.30 pm.
According to the rules of Twenty20 cricket, duration of each innings is 75 minutes; teams will incur a six-run penalty if they fail to bowl the full 20 overs; fielding restrictions apply for the first six overs of each innings; each bowler allowed a maximum of four overs; a five-run penalty for time-wasting by batsmen; no balls will be penalised by a free-hit next ball; a batsman cannot be out from a free-hit delivery unless he is run out.
Coinciding with the event, sponsored by Australia's biscuit maker Unibic, Bradman Foundation, a non-charitable trust, is slated to be launched in Bangalore, officials said.
Teams:
New South Wales: Douglas Bollinger, Daniel Smith, Murray Creed, Matthew Phelps, Jarrd Burke, Dominic Thomey, Edward Cowan, James Packman, Jason Krejza, Matthew Nicholson, Grant Lambert, Aaron O'Brien, Greg Mall, Andrew Nealon, Craig Simmons and Nathan Bracken.
Chemplast: Sujith Somasundar, L Balaji, Tinu Yohanan, S Badrinath, R Ramkumar, Ajay N Kudua, S Sriram, Vikram Kumar, P Jayachandran, Mohammed Syed, Pravanjan Malik, Shiva Kumar, Vijay, D Vasu and Suresh Raina.
CAB: Deep Dasgupta, Nikhil Haldipur, Arindam Das, Subhomoy Das, Manoj Tiwary, Sanjib Sanyal, Rohan Gavaskar, Anirban Chatterjee, Sourasish Lahiri, Shib Sagar Singh, Sourav Sarkar, Ranadeb Bose, Rahul Deb, Subhojit Paul, Soham Ghosh and Shib Sunder Das.
KSCA XI: J Arun Kumar, D Ganesh, Rowland Barrington, Sunil B Joshi, Robin Uthappa, Bharath Chipli, Vijay Bharadwaj, Sudheendra Shinde, Stuart T Binny, Udit B Patel, Thilak Naidu, N C Aiyappa, R Vinay Kumar, C Raghavendra, C Raghu and Gaurav Dhiman
Bradman World XI: Shoaib Malik, Salman Butt, Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Sami, F Maharoof, R Kaluwitharana, Upal Chandana, Russel Arnold, Adam Hollioake, Dean Jones, Ajit Agarkar, M S Dhoni and Javagal Srinath.
Note: Air India is yet to name the team.
