Former Indian cricketer Mohammad Kaif, on Wednesday, made the official announcement of the launch of the inaugural edition of the Gujarat Premier League (GPL) –a state and franchise-based T20 cricket tournament, in the presence of Dharmang S Dalal, Director, Luxuryminds Entertainment in Surat.

The first edition of the GPL T20 tournament will kick off on May 28 and will conclude on June 10, while all matches will be played in the three venues of the state –Surat, Ahmedabad, and Rajkot.

On Tuesday (3 April), the announcement Press Conference was held at The Gateway Hotel Athwalines Surat, where Kaif said he is extremely excited and delighted to be a part of the tournament. He is also looking forward to playing this tournament, whose main aim is to sharpen the local players by bringing in national and international cricketers in the league.

In the tournament, there will be total of 6 former Indian players, 18 international and domestic stars will be seen in action over a period of 12 days. On the other hand, a total number of six teams will be competing in 18 matches of the tournament. The GPL will be broadcasted live on TV by ‘Neo Sports’.

 Mohammad Kaif said to the reporters, “Congratulations to Dharmang for coming up with this great initiative of a state-based T20 tournament. I’m extremely excited and delighted to be a part of Gujarat Premier League and looking forward to playing this tournament. I expect this league adds more dimensions to cricket and brings out the best in the cricketers who will be participating in GPL.”

Meanwhile, Dharmang S Dalal said of GPL, “I have been very passionate about cricket since childhood and this is the reason why we came up with the idea of Gujarat Premier League. With cricketing legends like Mohammad Kaif, Brain Lara, Andrew Symonds and many more we aim at giving the cricket fans an avant-garde experience of T20 matches. Power-packed with not only the legends of yesteryears, these thrilling matches will showcase some of the finest cricketers of Gujarat.”

The winner of the tournament will get a cash prize of Rs 51 lakh, and the runners-up will earn Rs 21 lakh, while the participating teams will get Rs 2 lakh each as the prize amount as well.