ICL announces Rs 12.3 cr prize money for 'Edelweiss 20s Challenge'

New Delhi, Mar 8 (UNI) The rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL) today announced the prize money corpus of Rs 12.33 crore for its upcoming 'Edelweiss 20s Challenge'.

Kiran More, Executive Board Member, ICL, in a press conference held in Chandigarh said, ''Financial incentive is an important motivating factor for professional cricketers and we at the ICL board are proud to announce a magnificent corpus of Rs 12.33 crore for 'Edelweiss 20s Challenge', breaking new barriers in the history of domestic Indian cricket.'' Tony Grieg, Executive Board Member, ICL said, ''It is a full-filling experience to see the ICL make rapid strikes in terms of growing bigger and better in only its first year of operations.

Multiple venues, additional teams, an improved player base and to top it all, a very impressive prize money to be won, should make the tournament an enthralling experience for both - the players and cricket fans.'' Winners of tournament stand to gain Rs 2.5 crore, while the Runner-up will cash in Rs 1.25 crore and the third placed side will pocket Rs 50 lakh. Every league match will be fiercely contested and the financial incentive for every win at the league stage will be a handsome Rs 25 lakh, resulting in a total prize money of Rs seven crore at the league stage only.

The incentive for individual performance during the 34 matches will be an impressive Rs two lakh for Man of the Match and a humongous Rs 40 lakh for the Man of the Series.

Edelweiss 20s Challenge will start on March 9 to April 7 which will be held in three locations Hyderabad, Chandigarh (Panchkula) and Gurgaon. Two new teams Ahmedabad Rockets and Lahore Badshahs have also been added to the existing six teams, making the tournament more comprehensive and competitive.

Each team will play against each other once in the league format, followed by semi-finals, third position classification match concluding with the best of three match finals.

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