Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Madhya Pradesh Tennis League (MPTL) is going to be held in the city like Indian Premier League of cricket. Players' auction for the league will be held on March 26 at Hotel Sheraton Grand Palace. Prize money of Rs 18 lakh will be distributed to in this tournament. Special honor will also be given to All India Tennis Association general secretary Anil Dhupar during the auction.
MPTL Commissioner Saurabh Mishra has said the league is recognized by MP Tennis Association and it will have 8 franchise teams and each team will have 15 players each. There are 120 players in the auction to be held on Sunday.
He said that the classification of players will be done through special software based on marks.
Under the first edition of MPTL, four selection tournaments were held in Indore and Bhopal. From here top two players in the singles category and top two pairs in the doubles category were included in the list of players of the league. Players in the age group 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 will be included in the boys' category, while in the girls' age group, players from 10 to 16 years will get a chance. Apart from this, there was competition among players for men's singles, men's doubles, women's singles and senior men's doubles (above 40 years of age). This time there is a preparation to give more grandeur to the event. Indian Junior Davis Cup team coach Sajid Lodi said that it is a pleasure to have such a big event in the city. This will also promote the game and players will also get a platform to showcase their talent.
Inter-Div MY Memorial Senior Cricket
Rajawat’s 11-wkt haul helps Indore in semis
A four-day match was played between Indore Division and Bhopal Division at Gymkhana Ground under the Inter-Divisional MY Memorial Competition, organized by the MPCA, in which Indore Division won the toss and elected to bat first. They scored 273 runs in 84 overs in the first innings. Nikhil Mishra and Harsh Gawli contributed maximum 70 runs each. Yuvraj Neema took 4 wickets and Priyanshu and Ankush took 2 wickets each. In reply, Bhopal Division scored 144 all out in their first innings in 42 overs, so Indore got a significant lead of 129 runs. Akash Rajwat took 7 wickets and Mihir Hirwani bagged 3 wickets.
In reply, Indore division were all out for 176 runs in their second innings in 55 overs and set a target of 305 runs for Bhopal. Chanchal Rathore scored 35 and Nikhil Mishra scored 24 runs. Ankush Tyagi took 5 wickets, Yuvraj Neema took 3 wickets and Prithviraj Tomar took 2 wickets. Chasing the target, the Bhopal team was able to score only 128 runs in 40 overs and lost the match by 177 runs, thus Indore division entered the semi-finals where it would meet Ujjain division from March 29 to April 1. Ankush Tyagi scored maximum 32 runs. Akash Rajawat took 4 and Mihir Hirwari bagged 3 wickets.
In this way, Akash Rajwat got the man of the match award by taking 11 wickets in the match. After the match, the prize distribution took place in the presence of selector Satyam Choudhary, observer BK Sharma, umpires Vijay Bajpai and Rakesh Tripathi and IDCA treasurer Subodh Gupta.
Both tournaments will run simultaneously from April 1 to 8
Mayor and IDA Cup Int’l Chess events next month
The city will host an international chess tournament from April 1 to 8. In this two-stage tournament, to be held jointly by Malwanchal Chess Club and All Indore Chess Association, Grandmasters from not only India but also from abroad will fight for prize money.
Secretary of the organizing committee, Akshat Khamparia said in the first phase, the International Challenger Mayor's Cup will be played from April 1 to 8 in association with Emerald Heights Director Muktesh Singh and Architect Achal Choudhary of the IPS Group. In the first Mayor's Cup, a prize money of Rs 21 lakh has been kept. Grandmasters from Kazakhstan, Russia, Poland, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Zimbabwe and Hong Kong will participate in this tournament. So far Grandmaster Levan Panatsulaia of Georgia, Grandmaster Boris Savchenko of Russia and Grandmaster Alexey Alexandrov of Belarus have confirmed their participation. Foreign Grandmasters are expected to face tough competition from our own Grandmasters. Indian Grandmasters like Deepsen Gupta, Sandipan Chanda, Deepen Chakraborty, Women Masters Sakshi Chitangale (Maharashtra), Arpita Mukherjee (Bengal) will present the main challenge.
Tournament directors Dr Sunil Somani and Anil Fatehchandani said the matches for the second phase International Challenger Indore Development Authority (IDA) Cup will be held from April 3 to 6. Only players who have Elo rating of less than 1800 can participate. An amount of Rs 12 lakh will be at stake in the IDA Cup.
The winning player will be awarded Rs 1.25 lakh and the runner-up will be given a trophy in addition to an amount of Rs 1 lakh.
