Chandigarh: UT Cricket Association (UTCA) is striving for the upliftment of cricket in every category and in view of this, UTCA is going to initiate some other tournaments giving a new dimension to its domestic cricket. After the immense success of Gully Cricket Tournament and Shaheed Chandrashekhar Azad Men's Senior T20 League, UTCA is all set for promoting women's cricket now. Chandigarh Women's Premier League (CWPL) is going to be started in October as announced by UTCA President Sanjay Tandon during UTCA's 43rd Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on Sunday. Apart from that, well before the start of Vijay Merchant Trophy, UTCA will be hosting 12 teams from states in the third week of October for the third edition of Late Balramji Das Tandon Memorial Cricket Tournament for Under 16. The previous edition witnessed participation from six states. The outline of both the tournaments will be announced soon.
Tandon said that many efforts are being made to strengthen the performance of the players. UTCA is very concerned about the fitness and fielding of the players, due to which the number of camps has been increased and the support staff has also been made effective in this direction. He said with collaboration with the UT administration, PU and local schools, UTCA have now got many match grounds which increased the number of matches for the players.
Earlier, while addressing the details of the annual report to the UTCA members, Tandon said that compared to 22 hostings in the last BCCI domestic season, this season UTCA has received 66 hostings, which is a matter of great pride for UTCA. He said that the popularity of cricket in the city can be gauged from the fact that there has been a significant jump in the number of registered players. Registrations of 417 players have been received in Under 16, 631 in Under 19, 380 in Under 23 and 278 in Men's Senior. 164 players registered in the girls category. He said that the Chandigarh State Award received by Kashvi Gautam on August 15 is a matter of pride for UTCA. He said not only the players of Chandigarh but also the support staff of Chandigarh have got the opportunity to lead in the national level matches of the BCCI. He informed that the BCCI deposited an amount of nearly Rs 5.5 crore directly into the accounts of the players. He also expressed happiness over the fact that UT Sports has opened doors for players to a bright career by including cricket in its accreditation policy. He emphasized that the BCCI is trying for the upliftment of cricket in Chandigarh by delivering equipment worth about 1.25 crores to UTCA.