MUMBAI: Indian Premier League franchise Rajasthan Royals has joined hands with the energy drink giant Red Bull in India for the eighth edition of Red Bull Campus Cricket, the only cricket tournament in the world developed specifically for university students.
The annual international T20 tournament kicked off in Mumbai, taking place across 30 cities in the country with the city qualifiers leg having begun from 3 February and ending on 12 March. Its aim is to discover and nurture budding cricketers from college campuses. Meerut and Dharamshala are two new cities that have been added for this edition and will be part of the North Zone.
The unique partnership between Rajasthan Royals and Red Bull will mark the beginning of one of India’s biggest cricket talent hunts as the former will be scouting young talent during the tournament and at the RBCC National Final this year.
A team from Rajasthan Royals will closely monitor and pick key players who are bound to impress. The few selected players will get a spectacular opportunity to be a part of the trials conducted by the team along with the possibility of getting picked in the next IPL auctions.
Rajasthan Royals principal owner Manoj Badale commented on the association: “Rajasthan Royals is delighted to be associated with Red Bull Campus Cricket. It is undoubtedly a premier cricket tournament giving a platform to the budding cricketers in India and around the world. We have seen immense cricket potential in India through our grassroots initiatives and we want to do everything we can to nurture this ecosystem.”
MMC College Pune’s Shubham Nagawde, the National Final winner of last year’s competition, added: “In India, the love and passion for cricket is incomparable to any other sport. Red Bull Campus Cricket is a way to discover raw talents while testing them in different matches at the national level and finally pitching them into international games to polish these talented individuals and bringing the best out of them. It has been a proud moment for me to have had experienced this and I would like to thank Red Bull for giving us the much-needed wings. Now, with Rajasthan Royals coming on board, Red Bull Campus Cricket is a platform offering potential player trials to campus cricketers like me and groom India’s raw talent which will eventually help Indian cricket.”
The winning college from each city will then proceed to the zonal/regional finals in April. The top two teams from each zone will then compete in the National Finals, where the teams will play in the knockout rounds of quarterfinals, semifinals and finals respectively.
The national winner will represent India in the Red Bull Campus Cricket World Series Championship 2019. Besides MMC College, other past winners from India include Rizvi College in Mumbai; DAV College in Chandigarh and Swami Shraddhanand College in Delhi.
Red Bull Campus Cricket stars like KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Shardul Thakur and Sri Lanka’s Niroshan Dickwella have represented their country at the international level. Cricketers like Manan Vohra, Shashank Singh, Siddhesh Lad, Himanshu Rana, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Anukul Roy, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Ricky Bhui have also reaped the benefits provided by the platform through earning IPL contracts.
