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Kochi: Champions Boat League begins on August 10

Regional boat races and water sports activities to add flavour to the IPL-styled event.

Kochi: The Indian Premier League (IPL)-style Champions Boat League (CBL) to be held in August will have much more entertainment to offer to sports enthusiasts than nine teams vying for the cup as the organisers have included regional boat races and water sports activities to make the event attractive.

The ‘Champions Boat League 2019’ will start on August 10 with the prestigious ‘Nehru Trophy’ in Alappuzha and ends with ‘The President Trophy Boat Race’ in Kollam on November 1.

Nine teams will compete in the event featuring 12 snake boat races every Saturday between 2.30 pm and 5 pm.

The venues will be Pulingunnu, Karuvatta, Kainakari, Kayamkulam (Alappuzha), Piravom, Marine Drive (Ernak-ulam), Kottapuram (Thr-issur), Thazethangadi, Ka-vanattinkara (Kottayam) and Kallada (Kollam).

“We’ve decided to include traditional and regional boat races held in the locality under the event so that viewers can get to experience much more activity. For example, there will be three heats before the final. The regional Piravom ‘small snake boat race’ will be held during the interval between two heats. Another will be the traditional ‘Kallada boat race,” said a senior tourism official.

The decision was taken as a heat will take only five to 10 minutes, and the match on a single day will get over in an hour. The tourism authorities though wanted to provide more entertainment to cheer up spectators during the whole afternoon section.

“We’ve also decided to include watersports such as fly-boards and speed boat rides at venues. We want the CBL to be a world-class tourism product capable of attracting thousands of tourists, especially foreign tourists,” the official added.

Meanwhile, the Kerala Tourism will market the event in foreign countries from next month.

“We’ve already shot a short film featuring the CBL tourism package for foreign tourists,” he added.

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