Bhubaneswar, April 24: If you are a die-hard cricket fan and have not seen much of Oriya players in action, here’s some good news: the state is set to get its own cricket league, courtesy Orissa Cricket Association (OCA).

In an apparent bid to give a boost to cricket in the state, OCA is coming up with Orissa Premier League (OPL) scheduled to be held from May 15 to 29, said OCA president Ranjib Biswal.

“Just a couple of days ago, we decided to start a tournament on the lines of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in the state. We are giving final touches to the plan now. In a day or two, we would make an announcement regarding the modalities and auction dates,” said Biswal.

The OPL would be an eight-team affair with 20 players in each squad. In the first phase, 10 major places in the state would be identified for the bidding. Out of these, the eight highest bidders would get to participate in the tournament. Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Berhampur, Sambalpur, Rourkela and Angul are among the top probable teams.

“The governing council of OPL, chaired by Tirupati Panigrahi, will take a call on the 10 probable bidders. But I can tell you that all major places would feature in the tournament. We are looking at creating a base support for each team in their local areas,” Biswal said.

A total of 100 players, categorised into A, B, C, D and E grades, would be put up for auction. “Each of them would have a base price. On the other hand, the remaining 100, who would be picked up from the catchment areas, would be paid match money. OPL would not only promote state-level cricketers but also budding talents who do not get the opportunity to play on a big platform,” said Biswal.

The tournament would give people the chance to watch big stars like Debashish Mohanty, Shib Sunder Das and Haldhar Das in action. While both Mohanty and Shib Sunder have represented the country at the international level, Haldhar drew a lot of attention last year when he was picked up by Deccan Chargers for IPL-III.

The franchisees have to pay an amount of Rs 5 lakh each to the OCA to own a team in the tournament. The franchisees would be allowed to spend a maximum of Rs 5 lakh on buying their 10 players. Besides, each of the teams would play a “home” match and an “away” match. The champions would take away prize money of Rs 5 lakh while the runners-up would get Rs 2.5 lakh.

While the league matches would be played during the day, the semi-final and final matches are scheduled to be played under floodlights at Barabati Stadium in Cuttack where the players would wear coloured jerseys. “Only the semi-final and final would be telecast on a local television channel. It would be premature to reveal the name of the channel as we are still at the negotiation stage,” said Biswal, adding that arrangements would be made to ensure the telecast of more matches in the subsequent editions of the OPL.

With a little over three weeks to go for the inauguration of Orissa’s very own cricket league, Biswal appeared all excited. He said the project was a challenge for the OCA. “Naturally the expectations are high since this is the first edition. But I have a gut feeling that the OPL would be a grand success,” he added.