(From left) Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Gandhi, Robert Vadra, Rehan and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in Amethi. (Naeem Ansari) Tapas Chakraborty

Amethi, June 2: Priyanka Vadra’s son Rehan, 7, sat between his parents wearing a Kolkata Knight Riders shirt. Rahul Gandhi and Sachin Tendulkar were side by side, drawing wild cheers at the final of the world’s biggest Twenty20 tournament.

Today. Yes, today. At Amethi’s Ambedkar Stadium, not Navi Mumbai’s D.Y. Patil.

A day after the Indian Premier League ended, the “Bharat Premier League” — otherwise known as the Rajiv Gandhi Rural Cricket Tournament — climaxed today before a glamour audience almost borrowed from the IPL.

If the rural meet, which had Amethi MP Rahul as chief patron, lagged Lalit Modi’s brainchild in hype, TRPs and cash, it outdid its city-based counterpart in sheer scale.

“There were 1,857 village teams from Amethi’s 16 blocks. The tournament involved 30,000 players, 212 umpires, 131 scorers and 140 grounds in and around the constituency,” said Congress spokesman Akhilesh Pratap Singh.

Up to 100 matches were played on some days and the organisers provided coloured clothing to each team. And if there were no cheerleaders, a 55-strong CRPF band tried to make up with brass music today.

“The scores were generally good. Lots of big sixes were hit,” said chief organiser Vijay Murthy, a local Congress leader.

The 20,000 around the rugged outfield today clapped as Rahul tossed the coin at 2pm after shaking hands with both sides’ players. By 5pm, Sangrampur had thrashed Taloi by 64 runs after smashing 126 (with six sixes and 10 fours) on a makeshift pitch, winning Rs 3 lakh against their opponents’ Rs 1.5 lakh.

If Rahul and Priyanka lent their glamour to cricket during the IPL, Sachin Tendulkar returned the complement today. His arrival with young pacer Pankaj Singh nearly set off a stampede, stopping the match briefly.

Later, Sachin handed over the individual awards as Rahul gave away the prize money, including Rs 60,000 to the losing semi-finalists.

The cash may have been nowhere near the IPL’s; but the estimated spectator figures were. Murthy calculated some 45 lakh watched the tournament compared with a likely 20-25 lakh at the IPL grounds. There was no TV audience, however, with coverage restricted to the occasional DD footage.

Some of the BPL teams may have been stitched up too hastily to get a number of 1,857 in the 150th anniversary of the great revolt. A handful of no-shows kept the number of matches down to 1,819 instead of the 1,856 the knockout format entailed.

Akhilesh said the organisers provided 3,714 bats (two per team) and 11,000 balls.

“The tournament is a great opportunity for promoting cricket in rural areas…. It is great that Sachin is here,” Priyanka said.

If the IPL represented “commercialisation of cricket” to its critics, the BPL represented the game’s “politicisation” to some, especially to Congress rebels and the Bahujan Samaj Party.

Pictures of Rahul and Rajiv hung from trees at every match, and the late Prime Minister’s cutouts stood all around the stadium today.

“Cricket can’t be an alternative to building a proper party organisation. Rahul is going for short cuts,” a Congress dissident from Rae Bareli said.

The tournament, however, featured over 1,000 Dalits in some 500 teams, playing side by side with those from higher castes. If the IPL saw Indian fans cheer for the once-hated Andrew Symondses and Ricky Pontings, village upper castes rooted for their BPL teams that included “untouchables”.

“This tournament has given players an identity beyond their castes,” Sangrampur skipper Adarsh Singh said.

“You shouldn’t see politics everywhere,” Rahul told reporters. “Many of the players were from other parties.”

Asked if he was the M.S. Dhoni of the Congress, the MP replied: “Dhoni is captain of his team; tell me which team I am captaining?”