A revamped Everest Premier League twenty20 cricket tournament, scheduled for December kick off, was unveiled here on Sunday.

Panchakanya Tej, led by national team stalwart Sharad Vesawkar, clinched the inaugural edition title last year that saw six franchises owned by corporates houses compete for the top honour.

The major change this year would be renaming the franchises, informed the EPL founder Aamir Akhtar on Sunday. Unlike last year, the City teams will represent the six franchises this year: Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Biratnagar, Bhairahawa, Birgunj and Pokhara. 

Akhtar did not disclose the details of the new franchises but said it will be ‘much bigger’ than the previous ones. “We will disclose the details of the new franchises in due course. Its too early and I can’t reveal whether some of the team owners of the last year will continue to own new franchises,” added former cricketer Akhtar, who is also the Managing Director of the Zohra Sports Management, an event management company. 

Apart  from Tej, Vishal Warriors, Colors X Factors, Kantipur Gurkhas, Jagdamba Rhinos and Sagarmatha Legends represented the EPL last year. 

The champions this year will receive a whopping Rs 2.1 million in prize money, a significant raise from the last edition where champions Tej received Rs 500,000.

Each team will play five games in the league before top four making it to the playoffs, informed Akhtar without actually elaborating on the format.

Apart from a significant hike in the prize money, the organisers have made concrete plans for the formation of each city-based teams.

Each team will have a pool of 15 players with 10 coming through auction, one player reserved as a ‘city local’  and one as marquee player.

Three mandatory foreign players is also a must in each team. However, Akhtar denied once against to elaborate on what exactly ‘marquee player’ represents.

“We will provide a pool of international players to the owners but we are flexible enough to allow any team who wants to pick a quota of foreign players on their own,” said Akhtar.

Akhtar said that he will reveal the details on the price tag, category of the local players and all other similar details in coming days.

The organisers also said that the arrangement have been made to involve vendors, event managers and entertainers that have had experience working in the Indian Premier League to ensure the efficiency in managing the event.

National team skipper Paras Khadka hailed the event for setting the benchmark in the domestic cricket. 

“The tournament gave us the feel of international event last year and I thank the organisers and the sponsors to make that happen. We very much look forward to the tournament,” said Khadka. 

“Such tournament will help raise the standard of cricket and also provide platform for players to showcase their talent,” said national team coach Jagat Tamata during the unveiled of the tournament logo on Sunday.