Kolkata, March 27, 2008: In a strategic move, the Indian Cricket League (ICL) today announced its association with Bengal’s favorite son & Bollywood icon,
Mithun Chakraborty at a press conference held in the city. As per the alliance, Mithunda will own a stake in ICL’s Kolkata Tigers team and would be instrumental in endorsing and promoting the team.
Speaking on the occasion, the evergreen Bollywood actor Mithunda said, "I always maintained that sport in Bengal needs a bigger and better platform for promoting sports people from Bengal. Keeping the millions of Bengalis in mind, I have associated with ICL to promote Kolkata Tigers. I would want to see more domestic players becoming national icons from my city of joy."
Kapil Dev, Chairman, Executive Board, Indian Cricket League (ICL) said, "It is heartening to see a living legend of Indian cinema promote sport. There is a lot of similarity in our vision and passion for sport. Mithunda’s association with the ICL will greatly help in promoting the young domestic players from the eastern region. His support is going to help us display the best cricketing talent from the eastern zone."
ICL is currently promoting the Edelweiss 20s Challenge which is being held in three locations: Hyderabad, Chandigarh (Panchkula) and Gurgaon. The tournament promises 30-days of non-stop pulsating cricket from March 9th to April 7th, 2008. Two new teams – Ahmedabad Rockets and Lahore Badshahs have also been added to the existing six teams, making the tournament more comprehensive and competitive. With international cricketers of high stature being added to the league, the quality of cricket is expected to be on par with international standards.
To catch all the excitement, tune into the Edelweiss 20s Challenge on ZEE Sports & TEN Sports in India, Geo Super in Pakistan, Astro & Telkom Malaysia in Malaysia, Starhub in Singapore, Showtime Arabia in Middle-East, ZEE Sports in USA & Canada and ZEE Cinema in United Kingdom & Europe. Viewers, who follow cricket through the medium of internet, can log in to www.bollywood.tv & watch the matches LIVE. With a match every evening (6pm onwards IST) and double headers on specific week-ends, the tournament will have in total 34 matches. Each team will play against each other once in the league format, followed by semi-finals, third position classification match concluding with the best of three match finals.