BCCI hosts associate and affiliate U-19 tournament in Alur, Karnataka

The Board of Control for Cricket in India is holding an Under-19 cricket tournament for the Associate and Affiliate at Alur.

Six teams are taking part in this league-cum-knock-out tournament which is being held from September 15-21.

The teams are Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Nagaland, Manipur and Bihar. They have been divided into two groups and the top two teams will qualify for the semifinals.

Venkatesh Prasad and Rakesh Parikh, who are part of the junior national selection committee are present at the stadium to witness the match. They will then pick a combined Associate and Affiliate team which will take part in the Vinoo Mankad tournament in the East zone.

Apart from this, separate tournaments will be conducted to select combined teams for Under-16 and Under-19 which will participate in Vijay Merchant Trophy (Under-16 East Zone) and Cooch Behar Trophy (Under-19 Plate Group).

Also, these teams will take part in the National Cricket Academy here prior to their participation in the tournaments. BCCI will appoint support staff for the teams and take care of all the expenses.

"We at the BCCI are committed to uplifting the Affiliate and the Associate States. In a quest to do so, we are constantly working towards providing them with the right platform, facilities, exposure and opportunity, thereby paving a way for the mainstream," BCCI boss Anurag Thakur said.

"This initiative marks another step in this direction and we hope that this will ensure that the right talent meets opportunity and more number of youngsters get motivated and take up cricket as a sport," he further added.

"We have organised this tournament in Bangalore, with intent to provide these budding cricketers with the best of facilities and infrastructure. We hope to host more of such tournaments with intent to inspire youth to play cricket in the affiliate and associate states. We wish all the players luck for this tournament and all their future endeavours," BCCI Secretary Ajay Shirke further observed.