IANS

Mumbai, Sep 6: After the craze for owning a Twenty 20 team, now the game's T-10 format, called Gully Cricket, has started attracting celebrities. Actress Divya Dutta has become the first proud owner of the Ludhiana team.

Divya bought the Ludhiana Gully Cricket team Saturday for season two that will kick-start Sep 19 and end in a grand finale at Kanpur Nov 20, a spokesperson said here Sunday.

It will be played amongst 896 players from 64 teams in Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Panchkula, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Ballia, Patna, Gwalior, Lucknow, Kanpur, Allahabad, Surat, Nashik, Latur and Daman and will be telecast live on DD Sports Channel.

Divya, who is from Ludhiana, will patronise the team and be responsible for marketing and promoting it nationally. She will also be involved in activities like grooming the players, cheering them and sponsorships for the team.

"I am thrilled to be an owner of this team and will do my best for them. The T-10 format has enabled bringing out some of the best youngsters from all over the country. There are some very good players who play in the back alleys of our country and it is time their talent is showcased before the country," Divya said.

Reasonable Communications Pvt Ltd director Anoop Wadhwa, one of the organisers of the Gully Cricket, said that apart from Divya, they would 'sell' the 16 city teams across different states to other sponsors and celebrities to further popularise it.

Film actor Riteish Deshmukh is the brand ambassador of the event, the first season of which was completed in January-February 2009.

The spokesperson said that T-10 is played for 10 overs by each team. It is not open to any established players, but only the real gully players in small cities or far flung towns around the country.

T-10 format is not officially sanctioned by the Indian cricket board.