KARACHI: Pakistan Super League’s (PSL) franchise Quetta Gladiators have joined hands with Red Bull for the seventh edition of upcoming nationwide Cam­pus Cricket tournament under the banner of ‘RBCC Future Gladiators’ which will be played in eight cities of Pakistan.

Universities of as many as eight cities will fight it out to become the national champion. The cities include Karachi, Lahore Peshawar, Quetta, Islamabad, Faisala­bad, Multan and Hyderabad.

Quetta Gladiators owner Nadeem Omar said that he is excited that his franchise are launching one of its kind partnership with Red Bull to mark the start of one of the biggest sporting activities in Pakis­tan. “We’re really exci­ted to be partnering with Red Bull Campus Cricket and I believe this activation of RBCC Future Gladiators will allow us to see what sort of talent is available in Pakistan at the university level,” he said.

“The players will have the big incentive of being monitored by Quetta Gladiators. We plan to induct any outstanding talent from the tourney in our activities. Two of the best players — one from Balochistan and one from rest of the Pakistan — will be included in All Stars Muqabla exhibition match which will be played in Quetta with another PSL franchise in next few months,” added Nadeem. “We hope that we would be able to get some good talent from Balochistan as well from this initiative.”

In Pakistan, Red Bull Campus Cricket (RBCC) has brought immense talent into the limelight including big names like Hussain Talat, Mir Hamza and Ruman Raees.

Former skipper Moin Khan, who has been the mentor for Red Bull Campus Cricket since the beginning, was also present on the occasion.

The RBCC is the only global T20 cricket tournament for university students where campuses from eight countries participate for national pride and become world champions.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2018