Dunedin to get a little taste of the IPL

A little IPL razzmatazz is coming to Dunedin early next year.

A group of cricket enthusiasts have organised a new tournament they hope will take off and bring the kind of excitement to the city the Indian Premier League offers.

The Dunedin Super League (DSL) has sponsors, prize money, a snazzy logo and the guest list for the inaugural tournament is full.

Organiser Binu Antony said they had limited entries to eight teams so the tournament could be played in one day.

All eight spots have been filled — four of the teams are from Dunedin and there is one from Cromwell, Christchurch, Ashburton and Timaru.

The DSL will be staged at Sunnyvale on January 2.

The format is a straight knockout, so the winning team will need to win three games in a row to collect the winner’s purse of $1501. The runner-up will receive $751.

The prize money is being funded through the $250 registration fee and sponsorship. There will also be other prizes for individual performances.

The extra dollar of prize money is a nod to an Indian tradition.

Antony said the tournament was being planned for last season but they were new to organising events and could not get the funding in place.

The motivation behind it is to bring the Indian community together and play some cricket during the Christmas break.

But Antony said they are ambitious and hope to open the event to teams from within the South Island first and then to teams throughout the country.

They would even like to establish an IPL-style player auction.

For now it is more of a community event. They planned it during a period when there is no club cricket and do not see themselves as a rival to traditional club cricket.

But they would love for the DSL to become a regular fixture on the calendar.

The tournament will adhere to international twenty20 rules with some very important differences.

It is an eight-a-side, 15-overs per team format.

The powerplay is during the first four overs and a bowler can deliver a maximum of three overs.

 

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