Visakhapatnam: After kabaddi, now carrom lovers too have something to cheer about. In a bid to promote and popularise the traditional Indian game carrom among youngsters and spectator glory, All India Carrom Federation (AICF) will organise Rs 15 lakh prize money Pro Carrom League (PCL) on the lines of Pro Kabaddi League in Vizag city in the last week of August 2016.
HRD Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao unveiled the logo of Pro Carrom League-2016 on Friday in Vizag city and he expressed the confidence that carrom will regain its lost glory.
Six teams (five players each team), including five teams from India and one international team from USA will take part in the four-day event of first edition of PCL. The top players will be picked up by the franchisees in an auction to represent their teams and franchisees from five different states will vie for the teams.
President of AICF, Dr Neeraj Sampathy said that the only way out is to popularise carrom is by hosting more national and international events to produce more champions. The matches of PCL will be conducted on the new generation Green Carrom Boards. All matches will be held on a league basis followed by play offs between the top four teams and all the matches will be played between 4 pm and 8 pm, he added.
The captains of all the teams will be sponsored by a Telugu news channel (media partner of the PCL) to take part in the US open carrom Grand Slam to be held in Dallas and Texas of USA in the coming September.
The members of AICF requested minister Ganta Srinvasa Rao to include carrom as a demonstration sport in the National Games-2019 to be held in Andhra Pradesh for promotion of the game.
Expressing that Indians have been dominating the game, Mr Rao said that due to popularity of cricket, tennis, badminton and few other games in the country, carrom lost its magnificence.
The PCL-2016 is poised to capture the imagination of young and old alike in India and the rest of world too as PCL will give much entertainment to viewers all over the globe, he added.
