Hyderabad: The Hyderabad Cricket Association has decided to bar players above 40 years of age from playing in the top division three-day league. However, institutional teams would be exempted from this new rule as quite a few former Ranji players were representing these sides.
In another rule, each playing team would comprise at least seven players who had played in various leagues in the last three years.
The HCA is all set to launch the school (U-16) and college leagues (U-19) from next month. Initially, the leagues would be restricted to 12 teams. “These leagues will provide an ideal platform for young boys to showcase their talent as top performers in these leagues will be directly selected for state teams,” HCA secretary T. Shesh Narayan said, adding the objective was to weed out corruption at the club level.
Preference would be given to schools/colleges having their own grounds. The HCA will also provide all the infrastructure support, including umpires, scorers etc for the conduct of the leagues, Shesh said.
The HCA is also planning to introduce a Corporate League, to play in which the companies would have to pay capitation fee.
