The white-leg of the Indian domestic season will kick off on Tuesday (October 11) as the 2022/23 Syed Musthaq Ali trophy (SMAT) kick offs in multiple centres across the nation. The trophy is India’s premier domestic T20 competition and has become a huge breeding ground for youngsters to make a mark.
It is widely stated that this tournament is attended with close attention by scouts of Indian Premier League (IPL) teams. In the past, many young players have risen to prominence after impressing in the SMAT and earned themselves big bids at the IPL auction and received hefty contracts.
This tournament will be a landmark moment for the T20I format as it will see the introduction of the ‘Impact Player’ rule in Indian cricket. This will allow teams to make a substitute during a game and the world will have key eyes on it as it could be introduced in the IPL if the experiment is succesful.
Schedule
The 38 teams are divided into five groups. The winner of all groups will qualify to the quarter-final while the second-placed teams and the overall 11th ranked team will face each other in the pre-quarters with the hope of making the last eight and competing to reach the semi-finals.
A total of 126 matches will be played in the tournament. The 2022/23 season will be hosted by six cities as Lucknow, Jaipur, Mohali,Rajkot, Indore will host the league stage. All the knockout matches will take place at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens with the final scheduled on November 5.
Groups
Elite A: Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Mumbai, Railways, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Vidarbha
Elite B: Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad, Manipur, Puducherry, Punjab, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh
Elite C: Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Services
Elite D: Andhra Pradesh, Baroda, Bihar, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Saurashtra
Elite E: Bengal, Chandigarh, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu
Telecast and streaming details
Not all matches of the tournament will be telecasted. Some select games will be shown on the Star Sports Network on TV in India. The Disney+ Hotstar app and website will give fans a chance to live stream the event on their mobiles and laptops in India.
