The Mumbai regional round in the third edition of the Scorpio Speedster contest, the ten-city hunt for India's fastest bowler, will be held at the Shivaji Park Gymkhana grounds, in Mumbai, on Saturday.
The two-day event is the tenth and the final round of the nationwide search. It will be held from 1600 hours on Saturday and Sunday and is open to all above the age of 16 years. Contestants can register on arrival at the venue or participate through sponsor nominations.
Every participant will be allowed to bowl thrice and their pace will be measured with speed guns. The ten fastest bowlers will qualify for the final of the Mumbai round, to take place on Sunday.
The finalists will bowl four balls each and the bowler with the fastest speed over the two days will be declared winner.
The winner, who will be richer by Rs 10 lakhs, will get entry to the National semi-finals, featuring the ten regional winners, the three next fastest bowlers across India, the winner and runner-up of the 2004 edition. These 15 semi-finalists will compete against each other and the top seven will progress to the finals.
Munis Ansari from Bhopal is the current favourite, having registered a top speed of 136 kph, while running him close are Chandigarh's Pawan Kumar (135 kph), Delhi's Vivek Rajput (134 kph) and Jaipur's Sunny Dhillon (134 kph).
The hunt for India's fastest bowler, which began in Chandigarh on September 24, has already witnessed a huge response. There were 1852 aspirants in Chandigarh, 5815 in Delhi, 1312 in Jaipur, 1232 in Gwalior, 1013 in Bangalore, 1872 in Hyderabad, 3413 in Kanpur, 1086 in Kolkata and 1300 in Ahmedabad who bowled their hearts out.