Coca-Cola Cricket Cup Under-16 school cricket tournament

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Punjab is all set to witness some exciting cricketing action as Coca-Cola India, the country’s leading beverage company, today rolled out the Coca-Cola Cricket Cup Under-16 school cricket tournament in partnership with Procam International. Cricket has enjoyed a prominent position in the sporting history of Punjab, which has produced a number of skilled cricketers, who have gone on to achieve great laurels at the National level. To continue unearthing great cricketing talent from the state, the Punjab leg of the Coca-Cola U-16 Cricket Cup Tournament will commence from the second week of October. The initiative was announced by Shri Ashish Sethi, CEO, Kandhari Beverages Pvt. Ltd (Franchise Bottling Partner of The Coca-Cola Company in India) along with Shri M P Pandove (Hon, secretary of Punjab Cricket Association & Shri P N Sankaran, Director Operations, Procam International at a press event organized at the PCA Stadium.

Speaking about the initiative, Mr.Ashish Sethi, CEO, Kandhari Beverages Pvt. Ltd (Franchise Bottling Partner of The Coca-Cola Company in India) said, “It gives us all at Coca-Cola, immense pleasure and a great sense of satisfaction to announce the launch Season 2 of the Coca-Cola U-16 Cricket Cup tournament in Punjab. It will give the state’s talented young players an opportunity to showcase their talent, get identified at the grassroots level and groomed to go on to play bigger league games in the future. The Coca-Cola System in India has always believed in promoting healthy, active lifestyle through sports. We believe that India has great sporting talent. Some of the best sportsmen have come from the most unassuming of places, and it is our endeavor to give this talent a platform with robust grassroots initiatives like the Coca-Cola U-16 Cricket Cup. We are excited about the launch of Season 2 of this tournament in Punjab and look forward to engaging even more talented young cricketers from the state through this program this year”.
The Coca-Cola U-16 Cricket Cup is an Inter-school grass root level cricket initiative to discover budding cricketing talent in the country. The program is open to all young cricketers in the age group of 12-16 years. This year the tournament will be played across 10 states in close to 70 districts involving more than 11,000 young players from more than 780 schools across the country. The winner of the Punjab leg will represent Punjab at the Inter State Challenge.

Speaking about the initiative, Mr. P.N Sankaran, Director Operations, Procam International, said “We are delighted to have Coca-Cola India as our partners for the 2nd season of the     Coca-Cola U-16 Cricket Cup. Coca-Cola’s support for sporting events is well documented, this partnership will enable us to encourage young cricketing talent in the country and serve as an ideal platform to promote grassroots cricket, identify promising talent and groom the country’s next generation of International cricketers. With India’s vast population and geographical spread, it is not easy for talented players to find the right platform and emerge into the spotlight. The Coca-Cola U-16 Cricket Cup aspires to be that platform for every deserving cricketer so that great talent never goes unrecognized”.
The Punjab leg of the Coca-Cola Cricket Cup will involve participation from leading under-16 cricket teams from the major districts Chandigarh, Mohali, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Patiala & 4 minor districts. The tournament will commence from the second week of October and will run for around 3 to 4 weeks. Matches will be played on a knock out basis across all the districts. The respective district winners will then play a league cum knockout format tournament in Mohali where the winner of the Punjab leg will be ascertained.
The teams and players performing well in the Inter district league will stand a chance to win prizes at each stage. The 4 semifinalist’s will be given special prizes. The winners & runners up of the Punjab leg will be awarded prizes worth INR 50,000 and INR 35,000 respectively. 

More About the Coca-Cola U-16 Cricket Cup
The Coca-Cola Intra-State Challenge will be played in Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh (all 13 districts), Punjab (6 major districts and 4 minor districts), Baroda, Tamil Nadu (Chennai city and 6 districts), West Bengal (Kolkata & 18 districts), Uttar Pradesh (Lucknow, Kanpur  and Allahabad), and Madhya Pradesh (Indore, Gwalior, Sagar, Rewa and Six Zones). The format of the Coca-Cola Cricket Cup has been structured to begin with the Intra-State Challenge, which will be open to all schools in the respective cities and districts. The centers that have more than one city or district will play their own inter-district before one winner emerges from each state. 


All the travel, boarding & lodging of this teams will be borne by the organizer.

The winners from the ten states will feature in the Inter-State Challenge. The National winners will take home Rs.100,000/- and the Runner Up will get Rs.70,000/-

Coca-Cola Cricket Cup’s Vision

BCCI over the past several years has done a tremendous job of enhancing the growth of cricket in India. They have done so by adopting a result oriented approach of organizing age group tournaments all over the country through their state associations.

This has helped immensely in carving out talented individuals on a regular basis. Most of these cricketers have moved ahead and have brought laurels for their states and the country.

Seeing the vast potential and growing popularity of this game, Coca-Cola India has a vision of facilitating BCCI in their quest to tap talent. We believe that the future of Indian cricket lies in these young talented budding cricketers. We intend to provide a perfect opportunity and platform to all the youngsters across the country to showcase their talent, skill and equally important, pride and loyalty to their school. It gives BCCI and their affiliated state units a brilliant arena to scout for potential match winners.

We hope that this initiative will serve as an ideal platform to identify and nurture young talented cricketers for them to be able to get noticed by the state associations and BCCI to represent the country on an International level.