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Now, Junior IPL is on its way

Joy and Vivek Bhattacharjya have penned 'Junior Premier League: The First XI'

New Delhi: Junior Devils, Mumbai Patriots, Bangalore Boxers, Kolkata Lancers, Punjab Princes, Chennai Emperors - meet the teams of Junior Premier League! Joy Bhattacharjya, who has been a part of the Kolkata Knight Riders IPL team, in his novel "Junior Premier League: The First XI", brings out the inside stories of, what he calls, an exciting junior cricket league.

"After the huge success of the senior league, the national cricket authorities had decided to make a national Under-15 cricket league. Each senior premier league city would have to hold trials and pick their own junior teams, and the teams would have to be staffed by their own coaches, trainers and analysts," the author writes in the book, published by Penguin India.

Accordingly, "in the first year, all the teams would play each other in a round robin format and then the top four teams would make it to the semi-finals. It was, frankly, the biggest-ever junior sporting event in India. And the proximity to the senior league meant that the juniors would be playing and practicing right next to their heroes.

" The book is co-authored by Vivek Bhattacharjya who is Joy's twelve-year-old son. When 12-year-old Neel Roy goes to Ranchi for his winter break, he meets Sachin Rawat, a local boy who has an amazing new bowling action.

Over weeks of practising with each other, Neel realises that Sachin could be the next Sunil Narine or Muralitharan. Once the vacation is over, Neel returns to Delhi and forgets about Sachin in the excitement of preparing for a place in the Junior Devils, the Delhi junior team of the first-ever Junior Premier League tournament.

But by a quirk of fate, Sachin moves to his aunt's home in Delhi when his father is transferred out of Ranchi. He finally gets his chance to join Neel in the 16-member Junior Devils team. What follows is a roller coaster of hope, fear, excitement and disappointment that is the lot of every cricketer. But things end on a great note as Junior Devils make it to the final and become the first JPL winners.

( Source : PTI )
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