New Delhi: Ten of the country’s top cricket playing school teams has qualified for the Inter-state round of the Coca-Cola U-16 Cricket Cup tournament. These talented players will pit their skills against each other in the Inter-State Challenge of one of the country’s largest Inter-School Cricket championship, which will be played across various venues in Mumbai beginning April 24, 2012.
The Coca-Cola U-16 Cricket Cup is an initiative undertaken by Coca-Cola India as part of its commitment to promote a sporting culture and healthy active living in the country and is being promoted by Procam International, India’s largest sports and leisure management company.

The Inter-State Leg, which is the culmination of the Coca-Cola Cricket Cup will help crown the champion Under-16 cricket playing school team in the country. Following the tournament, 20 of the best players will be shortlisted for an intensive seven-day coaching clinic to be conducted by former international cricketers of high repute. The coaching clinic will serve as catalyst in identifying the final     Coca-Cola XI, who will play a three-match series against the visiting Sri Lanka National Under-16 team. The Champion school of the Coca-Cola Cricket Cup will we awarded cash prize worth Rs.1 Lakh, while the runner-up school team will be awarded Rs 70,000, in-addition to winning individual awards for excellence.

The commencement of the Inter-State leg was announced at the CCI Club in Mumbai by  Wasim Basir, Director – Integrated Marketing Communications, Coa Cola India in the presence of Saba Karim, Former International Cricketer and Chief Mentor of the tournament, and P N Sankaran, Director Operations, Procam International.

Speaking on the occasion, Wasim Basir of Coca-Cola India said, “It gives us all at Coca-Cola India, immense pleasure and a great sense of satisfaction that many talented young players have been identified at the grassroots level and will now get groomed to go on to play bigger league games in the future. We are certain that this foundation laid for nurturing cricketing talent in the country will go a long way in taking cricket to the next level. On behalf of Coca-Cola India, I would like to congratulate all the ten teams for an astounding display of talent and wish them the very best for the future. Coca-Cola India has always believed in promoting healthy, active lifestyle through sports. We believe that India has great sporting talent. Some of the best sportsmen and women 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.”


Mr. PN Sankaran Director Operations, Procam International, said “It’s been an exciting period of competitive cricket that has now reached its climax. So wide has been the net cast by the Coca-Cola Cricket Cup, that the champion school emerging from the Inter-State Leg can truly wear the mantle of the best under-16 cricket playing school in the country and the pool of 20 players selected for the coaching clinic will be the absolute best under-16 cricket playing talent in the country. We are delighted to have Coca-Cola India as our partners for The Coca-Cola U-16 Cricket Cup and this partnership has enabled us to encourage young cricketing talent in the country and served as an ideal platform to promote grassroots cricket, identify promising talent and groom the country’s next generation of International cricketers.”

Speaking about the initiative, Mr. Saba Karim, former Test cricketer and Chief Mentor of the initiative,said, “At the end of the program, three best players –‘the Coca-Cola Cricket Stars’ will be groomed for a period of three years enabling them to realize their dream of donning International colors. Depending on their core strength, they will also get an opportunity to further hone their skills by attending training camps under the guidance of prominent ex-cricketers. The elaborate structure of the Coca-Cola Cricket Cup ensured that players played some tough cricket and prepared themselves to face bigger challenges.”
Springfield Rizvi has emerged the champion school from Mumbai and they will open their campaign against KDMA, Kanpur, the champion school from UP at the Hindu Gymkhana on April 24. The other champion schools in the fray are Kulachi Hansraj (Delhi), BHS Alkapuri (Baroda), Wesley Jr. College (Hyderabad), V P Siddhartha School (AP), KDMA Kamraj Municipal School Erode (TN), DAV Sr. Sec. School Chandigarh (Punjab), La-Martiniere School (West Bengal) and Christian Eminent (MP).
The ten teams will be divided into two groups of five each and League matches will be played till April 28th at the following grounds: Hindu Gymkhana, Police Gymkhana, HPCL, Chembur, Elf Vengsarkar Academy  and the Vengsarkar Academy Ground, Chembur.
The top two teams of each group will play the semi-finals on April 29, followed by the grand final on April 30.