Kathmandu, November 16

Dhangadhi Cricket Academy and Vijay Distillery Pvt Ltd today extended the sponsorship deal for the Dhangadhi Premier League slated for February 2-16 at the proposed Fapla International Stadium.

DCA President Subash Bahadur Shahi and Chief Finance Officer of Vijay Distillery of Jawalakhel Group of Industries Satish Karna signed the memorandum of understanding amidst a programme.

As per the agreement, Vijay Distillery will provide the organisers with Rs 11 million — 80 per cent in cash and 20 per cent in kind and promotion — to organise the third edition of the DPL, a city-based franchise Twenty20 cricket tournament to be participated in by six teams. In return, Ruslan Cricket will be the main sponsor of the tournament and it will be named as Ruslan DPL.

Last year, the two parties had signed the sponsorship deal worth seven million rupees — Rs 3.5 million in cash and equal amount in kind and promotion — for the second edition of the DPL. “With the significant growth in the popularity of cricket in Nepal, Ruslan Cricket extended the agreement under its Corporate Social Responsibility,” said Vijay Distillery CFO Karna. “We will continue to support cricket in future as well.” Karn also said the sponsorship amount of Rs 11 million was the biggest one by his company in sports sector.

DCA President Shahi said the agreement was for three years with the clause of increment every year. “We would like to thank Ruslan Cricket for supporting the tournament. It was a sorry situation a few years back as we had to knock so many doors for Rs 10,000 sponsorship. I think we kept on putting our hard works and it has paid off,” said Shahi.

He credited the team work for being able to make DPL an established brand. “Today DPL is a popular brand. We started an event a couple of years back and the model became popular throughout the country. We are not just organisers, we are an impact creator,” he added.

“The situation is different these days as organising an event is not as difficult as it used to be a couple of years ago. We made it possible with the help of various individuals and organizations,” said Shahi.

Six teams — defending champions Team Chauraha Dhangadhi, CYC Attariya, Rupandehi Challengers, Mahendranagar United, Kathmandu Goldens and Biratnagar Kings — will take part in the tournament as previous two editions. Each team will have a maximum of 15 players with foreigners and one from Farwestern Region picked through Talent Hunt programme, informed the organisers.

The six teams will play against each other in round robin league and top four sides will make it to the playoff. The top two teams will play the first qualifier and the winner will enter the final. The next two teams will play the eliminator and the winner will face the losing side of the first qualifier for a place in the final.

The organisers are yet to finalise the prize money and other awards for the teams and players. “Our focus will be to increase the facilities for the players and improve on management rather than competing with other tournaments in prize money,” said Shahi. The DCA will also honour two individuals with Dhangadhi Cricket Award and Arjun Khadka Memorial Award which carry cash purse of Rs 100,000 each.