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Cricket lovers in Bahrain’s will soon get a taste of the competitive short form of the game after the kingdom’s top players were snapped up at the weekend to bring glory to their franchised teams in the Bahrain Premier League.
KHK Sports has launched the franchise-based T20 tournament under the patronage of Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa, and will see six squads smash it out in the first competition of its kind on these shores next month.
Chairman of KHK Holdings, Mohammad Shahid, said: “This is a fantastic new development for cricket in Bahrain and I believe that the Bahrain Premier League will not only strengthen cricket’s base in the kingdom, but also serve to encourage greater local participation in the sport.”
The opening ceremony and match-day one of the Bahrain Premier League 2018 will take place on January 26, with group matches being played out over three consecutive weekends to determine the four qualifiers for the semi-finals on February 16. A grand finale is scheduled for February 23.
Matches will take place at the Khalifa Sports City Stadium in Isa Town, and the six teams will play under the names of The Bahrain Falcons, The Bahrain Knight-Riders, The Bahrain Lions, The Bahrain Rising Super-Giants, The Bahrain Royal Challengers and The Bahrain Warriors.
They are each comprised of 12 players each, and were selected via an auction last weekend, in similar style to the hugely popular and lucrative Indian Premier League.
The 72 players were split into three classes: Grade A, Grade B and Grade C, and each team was given a maximum budget of BD2,000. Individual players were capped at BD200, with Grade A players requiring a minimum bid of BD150, then BD100 for Grade B and BD75 for C.
Bids were placed by a combination of the managers, captains and team owners, and lots were drawn to settle tied bids.
One of the organisers, Anand Lobo, a former president of the Indian Club, is confident the tournament will be a rousing success and grow in popularity.
He said: “We’re really excited to have the BPL taking place in Bahrain and I think it will have a positive impact on the sport. We’re still sorting out the finer details, but we’re looking to invite media and cricketing personalities on match days. Furthermore, we have dignitaries and Bollywood celebrities pencilled in for the opening and closing ceremonies, which we’ll announce details of shortly.
“We’d love fans to come down and watch what promises to be high quality cricket, with entertainment, a food court and a children’s play area included.”
Twenty 20 Cricket has added razzmatazz to what was once described as the gentleman of sport. As many put it, pulling crowds of 20 to 30-year-olds to five day test matches has gone from the improbable to the impossible, with the rare exceptions of tournaments like The Ashes series between Australia and England.
As for the players, it allows them to exhibit a certain swagger one cannot possibly express in another format. That, coupled with cash incentives and entertainment, has created a win-win situation for all, its admirers claim.
Entry for spectators will cost BD1 with the bonus of a ticket for a prize draw to win a Chevrolet Aveo, plus the chance to win SMS competitions via telecom partner, Viva.
The Bahrain Premier League has been launched in partnership with Exelon and in association with the Cricket Bahrain Association.
Fast and furious packs in the fans across the globe
Twenty20 cricket, sometimes written Twenty-20, and often abbreviated to T20, is a popular short form of cricket. It was first introduced in Pakistan due to time restraints for playing during Ramadan.
At the professional level, it was originally introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board in 2003 for the inter-county competition.
In a Twenty20 game the two teams have a single innings each, which is restricted to a maximum of 20 overs. Together with first-class and List A cricket, Twenty20 is one of the three current forms of cricket recognised by the International Cricket Council as being at the highest international or domestic level.
A typical Twenty20 game is completed in about three hours, with each innings lasting around 75–90 minutes and a 10–20-minute interval. This is much shorter than previously-existing forms of the game, and is closer to the timespan of other popular team sports.
It was introduced to create a fast-paced form of the game which would be attractive to spectators at the ground and viewers on television.
The game has succeeded in spreading around the cricket world. On most international tours there is at least one Twenty20 match and all Test-playing nations have a domestic cup competition.
The inaugural ICC World Twenty20 was played in South Africa in 2007 with India winning by five runs against Pakistan in the final.
