A dozen University teams including defending champions SRM University, Chennai, will be vying for top honours when the week-long 5th edition of the SOA Premier league (SPl) cricket championship begins at the SOA University Stadium here on February 22.
The tournament, with prize money of Rs. one lakh for the winners and Rs. 50,000 for the runner-up, will be played on round-robin basis with the teams split into four groups. The top four teams will qualify for the semifinals, Prof. R.K.Hota, Convenor of the tournament and Additional Dean of ITER, the faculty of engineering under SOA University, told in a news conference here on Saturday. There will be cash awards for the losing semifinalists as well. All the matches, to be 20-over affairs, will be played under floodlights, he said. The tournament will be inaugurated by former Indian pace bowler Debasish Mohanty. The other teams participating in the championship include last year’s runner-up lovely Professional University, Jadavpur University, Calcutta University, Delhi Technological University, Andhra University and Gitam University.
The local challenge will be spearheaded by the hosts SOA University, Utkal University, Ravenshaw University, Vir Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT) and Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT). Hosts SOA University have been placed in Group-A along with Gitam University and Delhi Technological University while Group-B comprises reigning champions SRM University, former winners Utkal University and VSSUT. In Group-C, Calcutta University will vie with Ravenshaw University and lovely Professional University for a place in the semifinals while Group-D will have Andhra University, Jadavpur University and BPUT. The semifinals will be played on February 27 and the final the next day, Dr. Hota informed adding separate prizes will be presented to the player of the tournament, player of the final, best batsman and best bowler.