The winning team of the forthcoming Indian Cricket League Twenty20 tournament -- Edelweiss 20s Challenge -- will pocket a hefty prize money of Rs 2.50 crore while the runners up would pocket Rs 1.25 crore, the tournament organisers announced in Chandigarh on Saturday.
The Indian Cricket League announced the prize money corpus of Rs 12.33 crore for the tournament to be held in Panchkula, Gurgaon and Hyderabad.
The team finishing third in the tournament will get Rs 50 lakh, while the financial incentive for every win at the league stage will be Rs 25 lakh, resulting in total prize money of Rs 7 crore at the league stage.
The incentive for individual performance during the 34 matches will be an impressive Rs 2 lakh for Man of the Match and Rs 40 lakh for the Man of the Series.
Former India wicketkeeper and ICL Executive Board Member Kiran More said the league is creating a new benchmark in Indian cricket.
"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," More said.
Tony Greig, Executive Board Member, 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," Greg said.
Two new teams - Ahmedabad Rockets and Lahore Badshahs have also been added to the existing six teams, making the tournament more comprehensive and competitive. The six other teams are Delhi Giants, Mumbai Champs, Hyderabad Heroes, Chennai Superstars, Chandigarh Lions and Kolkata Tigers.
The Edelweiss 20s Challenge will be telecast live on Ten Sports and Zee Sports. With a match every evening and double headers on specific week-ends, the tournament will have in total 34 matches. 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.
