All India Junior Cricket 7s tournament Delhi-leg starts tomorrow

New Delhi, Jan 16 (UNI) Winters may not be the right time for ice cream major Baskin Robbins to invest but with the World Cup just a couple of months away, it sure makes business sense to organise the first-ever All India Junior Cricket 7s tournament, to be played in five cities across the country.

Altogether 132 teams from Hyderabad, Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai and Pune will participate in the event, to be played on a league-cum-knockout basis. The Delhi leg of the event will kickoff tomorrow.

The championship, restricted to boys under the age of 17 years will see teenagers from all leading schools and junior colleges fight it out.

Talking to reporters here today, CEO Baskin Robbins, South Asia, Pankaj Chaturvedi, said, ''The novel format has been conceptualised for the youth and is structured in a manner to ensure that play is fun and competitive without requiring major cricketing skills''.

Each team will comprise seven players and each innings will last for only seven overs. The size of the field being small, there is a restriction on the bowlers run-up and each bowler will be allowed to bowl only two overs. Besides the batsman retires when his score reaches 30.

The winning team from each city will be invited to Mumbai for the finals.

UNI