Atray cricket tournament to be held from Sept.17

Chandigarh, July 18 (UNI) The 14th All India Prize money J P Atray Cricket Tournament will be organised under the auspices of Punjab Cricket Association from Septembter 17 to 30.

Matches will be played at the PCA Stadium, Mohali, Sector 3 Stadium, Panchkula, DAV School, Sector-8, and St. John's School, Sector-26, both in Chandigarh.

The Sector 16 Cricket Stadium will not be available this year as it is hosting the one-day international cricket match between India and Australia on October 8 after a gap of 14 years.

Giving details of the tournament, Mr Vivek Atray, President of the Organizing Committee, said 16 teams would participate in the league-cum knockout tournament.

All matches will be of 50 overs each innings and played under the ICC Rule of One Day cricket. The teams will be split into four pools and the winners from each pool will qualify for semi-finals. There will be a play off for the third and fourth position also.

As the tournament is being played just before the start of the India vs Australia One-Day series, it will give an opportunity to the fringe players to impress the selectors with their performance and stake their claims in the national side.

According to organsing secretary Captain Sushil Kapoor, the likely participating teams are defending champions Punjab Cricket Club, PCA Colts, runners-up ONGC, MPCA, Mumbai CA, Rajasthan CA, CAB, JSCA, Air India, Indian Oil Corp., Canara Bank- Bangalore, Tripura CA, All ndia Associate Bank, ITC, Minerva Cricket Academy, TNCA and BPCL.

The winners will get a cash prize of Rs 1.50 lakh, runner-up Rs 60,000, third position Rs 30,000 and fourth position Rs 15,000.

Efforts are being made to have the day and night final telecast live on Doordarshan which will be played at PCA Stadium, Mohali.

Dinesh Mongia, Reetinder Singh Sodhi, Pankaj Dharmani, VRV Singh, VVS Laxman, Irfan Pathan, Rohan Gavaskar, Munaf Patel, Mohd. Kaif and Suresh Raina are among the leading Indian players who will be seen in action.

UNI