MUMBAI: Beverage conglomerate Coco-Cola has announced the second season of its ‘Sprite Gully Cricket championship‘ as a prelude to the DLF-Indian Premier League (IPL), which will begin from 12 March.

The championship will be held across Bihar, north Bengal and the north east region to discover and encourage young cricket enthusiats in the region.
 
The event will begin from today 19 February and will involve over 1,400 budding cricketers between the age group of 15-24 years from Kolkata, Bardhman, Siliguri, Jamshedpur, Ranchi, Patna and Guwahati.

The winner of the championship, selected from the super league matches played between the city winners and Dotcom Sports (winners of last year‘s gully cricket), will get Rs 300,000 prize amount and an exclusive chance to meet Shah Rukh Khan, Sourav Ganguly and other Kolkata Knight Rider (KKR) players. The seven finalists emerging from the city league matches will also win Rs 100,000 and get to cheer for the KKR team at Eden Garden in Kolkata.
 
Coca-Cola India director marketing, flavors Srinivas Murthy said, "Street Cricket is the most authentic format of Cricket in India. Cricket, especially Twenty20 Cricket is a huge passion amongst the youth today. Sprite has been the associate sponsor of KKR and the success of IPL has taken the game to a new high and provides Coca-Cola India a very exciting platform to connect with all its consumers. Our new initiative, Sprite Gully Cricket Championship, is in keeping with brand Sprite‘s positioning of Seedhi Baat, No Bakwaas... Clear Hai!.‘‘ Hence we are engaging with all young players to stop preaching and start playing the game."
 
The championship is an initiative to build the excitement for IPL 4.0 through street matches, which will be supported by TV, radio, Internet and ground activities like road shows, music bands, cheerleaders and dance troupes to engage the crowds.