Jubilee Post News & Views
LUCKNOW. The grueling two-day trials to select players for Lucknow Falcons for the UP Premier League concluded at the ‘B’ Ground of the Bharat Ratna Atal Behari Bajpai Ekana Stadium on Sunday.
On the final two days of the trials five matches were played – three matches on Saturday and two on Sunday, the concluding day.
The chief coach of the Lucknow Falcons – Amrish Gautam, along with AW Zaidi (bowling coach), Umang Sharma (batting coach), Ravikant Shukla (fielding coach) and Mritunjay Tripathi (manager) keenly watched the performances of the boys.
The auctions of the capped players of the UP Premier League will be held in Lucknow on July 28, while the tournament is slated to begin in the third week of August at the Ekana Stadium. This will be the second edition of the tournament, after the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur had hosted the inaugural tournament last year, organized by the UP Cricket Association (UPCA).
A total of 1170 cricketers registered for the trials with the bulk coming from Lucknow Zone (897), while the number of players from other three zones were — Bareilly (119), Rae Bareli (106) and Bahraich (48).
Out of the registered 1170 players, 800 cricketers appeared during the initial trials organized at Ekana Stadium of July 13 and 14. After the initial trials the list was short-listed and 84 boys appeared on the opening day of the final trials when three matches comprising six teams (14 players each side) were played. And then on the final day, two trial matches between four teams (12 players each side) were played.
The final team of Lucknow Falcons will be announced after the conclusion of the team auction on July 28.
Brief scores of Sunday’s trial matches:
Match 1: Ekana Foundation 45 all out lost to Ekana Titans 47/6 by four wickets.
Match 2: Ekana Academy 120/8 lost to Ekana Rangers 124/7 by three wickets.
