The first Sindhi Premier League — conducted by the Sindhi Cricket Club in March this year — was a huge success for the support it received from the community and cricket fans. A lot of fans, along with their family and friends were at the Sevens stadium to witness the entertaining final between V Sindhis and U Sindhis. It was a carnival atmosphere at the stadium with the fans celebrating and encouraging the players for their all-round brilliance on the field. The grand success of the tourney has encouraged the community members to hold a much bigger event in September. “Last time, we started with just three teams but the event went on to become a big hit. The community members were there to support the teams and enjoy the atmosphere. Now we plan to conduct a tournament with seven teams,” Shiva Pagarani, one of the organisers of the SPL, told Khaleej Times on Thursday. “Last time we had three teams — V Sindhis, U Sindhis and M Sindhis. Now we have seven teams and all the new teams will be supported by business tycoons.” “We plan to hold the tournament at the Sevens on Sundays and Wednesdays, starting from the last week of September. The final will be held in April,” he said. The Sindhi Cricket Club introduced their new team owners at a function held at the Shangri La Hotel here recently. According to the format, all the teams will play each other twice with the top four teams going into the semi-final, followed by the final. “There has been an overwhelming support from the community for our event. The Sindhi Cricket Committee will help the owners finalise their teams,” Pagarani, who is the also the owner and captain of the top UAE domestic team Yogi Group, said. The committee comprises Pagarani, Paresh Amarnani of Malawi Trading, Vicky Sawlani of Deepak’s and Yogesh Odhrani of ESMA Group. The tournament will be held under the auspices of Dubai Cricket Council. While unveiling the plans of the club in the future, he said: “We have plans to conduct cricket tours to Spain, England and Kenya soon.” Each team will have 17 members and the 25-over matches will be held from 7.30pm. Niranjan Chawla of Chawla Architects Consulting and Engineering is the owner of Sindhi Royals, while Deepak and Rajiv Sawlani, owners of Deepaks Textiles, will back Victorious Sindhis. Pooja Vishal Chhabria and Vishal Chabbria, owners of Brooks Trading, will support the Petrochem Sindhi Kings. Mighty Sindhis will be supported by Ashok Shwakramani of Neeltex International, while Sanjay Chawla of Nhormus International is the owner of Divine Sindhi. Sanjay Asarpota of United Technology and Trading Company and Mahesh Kalwani of Safeer Mall are the owners of United Sindhis. Vinod Adnani, owner of Multiplex International, will support Sindhi Rockstar for the second edition of SPL. From khaleejtimes