NEW DELHI: JSW and GMR co-owned IPL franchise, Delhi Capitals, Friday announced the launch of the inaugural season of the Delhi Capitals Gully Cricket Championship powered by Daikin, which will take place in the city from Saturday, running through to 5th May.
With 127 matches scheduled to be played across three weekends, Delhi Capitals Gully Cricket Championship is expected to become one of Delhi NCR’s largest tennis ball cricket tournaments. The championship will be spread across eight Zones, and will be played at eight different venues across the capital city. A total of 96 teams will be taking part in the competition which will see more than 860 participants take the field. Each zone will have a total of 12 teams who will first compete in the Zonal Round in order to qualify for the City Finals.
Speaking on the launch of the championship, Delhi Capitals CEO Dhiraj Malhotra expressed his delight: “Delhi Capitals is proud to bring back the concept of gully cricket to the streets of the city. Gully cricket is something that all cricket fans and players enjoy participating in, and with this initiative, Delhi Capitals wants to bring back the gully cricket culture to the streets of New Delhi. We are delighted to provide more than 860 players the opportunity of playing with their friends in this unique tournament called the Delhi Capitals Gully Cricket Championship, and hope that it will be a memorable experience for the participants as well as their supporters. I would like to thank our sponsors Daikin for their continued support in helping us organize a tournament of such caliber.”
The execution of the inaugural season of the Delhi Capitals Gully Cricket Championship is being done by sports management company SportzConsult. The championship will be played in two phases: Zonal Round and City Finals. In the Zonal Round scheduled to take place on 13th, 14th, 20th and 21st April, each zone will have a total of 12 teams which will be divided into four groups of three teams each. Each team will play two round-robin matches, and the winner of each group, will qualify for the Semi-Finals. The two teams who win the Semi-Finals will face-off in the Final match, the winner of which will further qualify for the City Finals.
The City Finals, to be held on 5th May 2019, will see the winners of the eight Zones face-off each other in a knockout format starting with the Quarter-Finals and culminating into the title match of the Gully Cricket Championship.
The unique format of the Delhi Capitals’ Gully Cricket Championship will be played in a 7 overs-a side format with each team allowed to field only 7 players with 2 substitutions allowed only to replace a fielder but cannot bat or bowl. During each innings, two bowlers can bowl a maximum of two overs while only one bowler can bowl three overs.
To make the format more appealing for the participating teams, a Power-Over has also been introduced, wherein the batting team can double the runs scored in that over. However, a dismissal in the Power-Over will see 5 runs getting deducted from the batting team’s score.
The eight zones consist of the following areas across the city:
Zone 1 – East Delhi
Zone 2 – West Delhi
Zone 3 – North Delhi
Zone 4 – South West Delhi
Zone 5 – South East Delhi
Zone 6 – Noida
Zone 7 – Gurgaon
Zone 8 – Faridabad
Teams in Zones 1-4 will play their Zonal Round matches on 13th and 14th April, while teams in Zones 5-8 will play their Zonal Round matches on 20th and 21st April.
