DUBAI: After the successful conduct of the first edition of the inaugural Heera T10 League, the tournament governing council has announced plans for the expansion of the event.
As part of the expansion plans, an Invitation To Tender (ITT) was released for two new teams to be added to the tournament. The first edition of the tournament featured six teams, but in 2018 the plan is to increase the number of franchises to eight.
“The annual base price of the bid for new franchises has been fixed at $1.2 million. A one-time premium bid will decide the new franchise owners,” said T10 League governing council member Parvez Khan.
With the focus of the tournament being strongly South Asian, it was decided by the governing council that the two new teams will continue to build on that association. Accordingly the prospective bidders can choose the names of Gujarat, Andhra, Deccan and Marwaris amongst many other names as the preferred name for their team.
The first edition, staged in December 2017, was held at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. The six sides that participated in the tournament were: Maratha Arabians, Pakhtoon, Bengal Tigers, Punjabi Legends, Kerala Kings and Team Sri Lanka Cricket. The tournament was eventually won by Eoin Morgan-led Kerala Kings in a thrilling finale against Punjabi Legends.
The entire concept of T10 League was the brainchild of Shaji-ul-Mulk (chairman) and its president Salman Iqbal of ARY Group.
Mulk is the chairman of multi-national conglomerate Mulk Holdings. The other two board members are Parvez Khan and Habib Khan.
“We were absolutely thrilled with the response to the first edition. The attendance at the stadium, television viewership and the quality of play was absolutely top notch. But now comes the time to plan ahead. We are looking forward to a lot of interest to the ITT and are hoping to welcome on board two franchises,” said Mulk.
“We have conducted a thorough review of the first edition of the tournament. The stage is now set for us to take off onto the next level by adding two new teams. We are looking to complete the process as early as possible so that we can scale up the preparations this year,” opined Iqbal.
Among the players who played the tournament were former Pakistan captains Misbah-ul-Haq and Shahid Afridi, current Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed, current West Indies T20 captain Carlos Brathwaite, former Indian opener Virender Sehwag, current England ODI and T20I captain Eoin Morgan, apart from Bangladesh all-rounder and current Test captain Shakib Al Hasan.
The first edition of the tournament was held under the aegis of the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB), with the active support of Sri Lana Cricket (SLC), Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB).
