Actress Divya Dutta joins T-10 Gully Cricket 2 as owner of ‘Ludhiana Gullies’

Actress Divya Dutta, who originally hails from Ludhiana, will own ‘Ludhiana Gullies’, the Ludhiana cricket team participating in T-10 Gully Cricket Season 2. The second season will start with call for entries from September 19-22, 2009.

Dutta will own this team and will be responsible for marketing and promoting it in India. She will be involved from the grassroot level in all the team aspects – from call for entries to selection, grooming of the players to cheering them in the stadium, etc. She will also be instrumental in promoting this social cause and garnering various corporate sponsorships for her team in this season.

Ludhiana Gullies had been a promising runner-up team in T-10 Gully Cricket Season 1 and had powerhouse performances delivered by all its players. Season 2, which commences from September 19, expects to get 15,000 entries from Punjab and 80,000 entries collectively from 16 cities. It will be played amongst 896 players from 64 teams in Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Panchkula, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Ballia, Patna, Gwalior, Lucknow, Kanpur, Allahabad, Surat, Nashik, Latur and Daman, and will be telecast live on DD Sports and highlights on DD 1.

The Grand Day/Night Finale will be held on November 20, 2009 in Kanpur. Reasonable Communications is aiming to disburse individual ownership for each team for all the 16 teams in Season 2. It will follow the city franchisee model; discussion is on at various levels with local celebrities and corporates who have national appeal. Sports merchandising is also another avenue that is being explored. Various Options like outright purchase, revenue sharing, etc., are being worked out with various team owners.

Anoop Wadhwa, Director, Reasonable Communications Pvt Ltd, said, “We are extremely happy to have Divya Dutta as a team owner of Ludhiana Gullies. Ludhiana has been a hot favorite right from the beginning in Season 1 and reinforced their skills as runner-up. This season, we are confident that with Dutta’s participation and support the team will strive for higher goals. Over the past season T-10 Gully Cricket has taken off on an unprecedented scale and has also attracted a far wider audience. This unique format aims at conducting trials in a 10 overs-a-side match situation, which bring forth amazing display of cricketing skills from youngsters from different walks of life from smaller cities.”

T-10 Gully Cricket had its inaugural edition in January-February 2009 and had involved 32 teams across eight cities. Rin was the presenting sponsor and Pepsi was the pouring partner for the first season. Only non-first class cricket players in the 15-24 age group from Tier II and III and below towns are eligible to participate in this talent hunt every season. Bollywood actor Riteish Deshmukh is the brand ambassador for T-10 Gully Cricket Season 2. The first TVC campaign featuring him is already on air, which will be shortly followed by a longer version. A multimedia campaign demonstrating Gully Cricket and talent hunt in all its elements will be rolled out soon on a national basis.