Sharjah: Cricket fans in UAE can soon get a taste of gully cricket, or street cricket as it is played in the subcontinent.
The Sharjah Cricket Stadium is set to host the version of cricket that has been responsible for the rise of many international cricketers in India and Pakistan.
The tournament, called Ten Premier League (10PL), is being organised by Petromann, a UAE based oil and gas company, and will be one of the richest ever gully cricket competitions to be held at international level with prize money of Dh250,000. And for the first time, a UAE cricket council will be supporting such an event as the tournament will be held under the auspices of the Sharjah Cricket Council from November 29 to December 2.
Gully cricket, which is played with a hard tennis ball, became popular in cities like Mumbai where space is at a premium. Sunil Gavaskar once confessed that he owed his perfect straight drive to playing gully cricket and players like Sachin Tendulkar, Mohammad Azharuddin, Misbah-ul-Haq, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis have also recalled the time they played this version of cricket.
The organisers of this tournament have got former Indian opener Virender Sehwag as their brand ambassador. A total of 16 teams, which include 12 international teams with gully cricket specialist players, will be taking part.
The tournament is the brain child of Abdul Latif Khan, the executive director of Petromann Industries and a popular gully cricketer in the 1990’s in Mumbai.
Petromann had joined hands with Pacific Ventures, a construction company, and has been promoting indoor and tennis ball cricket in UAE.
Speaking to Gulf News, Khan said: “Gully cricket, played with a hard tennis ball, is popular but has never been held at such an international level with huge prize money. We have been playing in gully cricket tournaments by flying down to Mangalore and, in UAE, we are one of the strongest indoor cricket teams with UAE captain Amjad Javed and Rohan Mustafa having played for us. Gully cricket is also being played extensively in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar and hence teams from there and India will battle for honours. Sehwag will give away the winners trophy.”
“We will be importing the popular gully cricket ball called Tennex from Mumbai for the tournament. Forty-seven matches will be staged and there will be live streaming of the matches to all countries where gully cricket is popular through our website www.10pl.net. The teams that have confirmed participation are Kuwait Raiders (Kuwait), Hannan (Qatar), Alliance (Qatar), Friday Chargers (UAE), SKC Goa (India), Albert Developers (India), Kolkata Angles (India), Eleven Warriors (India), SAB Warriors, Amaco, Al Muzain (all from Saudi Arabia) and Pacific Ventures (UAE).
