Zonal Twenty-20 gets underway for World Cup preparations

Kolkata, Apr 2 (UNI) Fresh from the World Cup disaster, the BCCI is slowly regrouping the players for the Twenty-20 World Cup with the zonal rounds set to get underway here tomorrow with Jharkhand clashing with Orissa.

The East zonal round will feature Jharkhand, Orissa, Bihar, Asom and Bengal.

Two top teams of each zone will play the final leg to select the domestic Twenty-20 winners and in the process the core team for the Twenty-20 World Cup will be selected.

It gets underway from September 11 in South Africa with India playing the first match against Scotland in Durban on September 13.

While Bengal will field a full strength team, sans Sourav Ganguly, Jharkhand has in their ranks the ebullient Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Each day there will be two matches. The first one gets underway at 0830 hrs and the second one at 1300 hours.

In the second match tomorrow between Assam taken on Bengal. On April four Tripura take on Assam and Bengal take on Jharkhand, while on April five Oriss face Tripura and Assam lock horns with Jharkhand.

On April seven Jharkhand play Tripura and Bengal take on Orissa.

Finally on April 8 Assam and Bengal vie for honours against Orissa and Tripura respectively.

The matches will be played in a league-cum-knockout basis.

UNI