The All India Carrom Federation (AICF) would organise Pro Carrom League (PCL) in Visakhapatnam in August, 2016 in a bid to promote and popularise Carrom.
Unveiling the logo of Pro Carrom League-2016 here today, Andhra Pradesh Human Resources Development Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao said he is confident that carrom would regain its glory.
Elaborating on the PCL, the minister said, "Six teams (five players each), including five teams from India and one team from USA, would take part in the four-day-long event of first edition of PCL."
"The players would be picked up by the franchisees from five different states in an auction to represent their teams," he said.
The prize money of PCL would be Rs 15 lakh, he said.
AICF president Dr Neeraj Sampathy said the only way to popularize carrom is to host more national and international events to produce more champions.
"PCL matches would be conducted on new generation green carrom boards. All the matches would be held on a league basis, followed by playoffs between the top four teams, and they would be played between 4-8 PM," he said.
The captains of all the teams would be sponsored by a Telugu news channel (media partner of the PCL) to take part in the US Open Carrom Grand Slam to be held in Dallas, Texas of the USA in September.
AICF members requested Rao to include carrom as a demonstration sport in National Games 2019, to be held in Andhra Pradesh.
"The PCL-2016 is poised to capture the imagination of young and old alike in India and the rest of world too, as PCL would give much entertainment to viewers all over the globe," the minister said.
