NEW DELHI, INDIA: Virgin Mobile has announced the launch of Indian Hatke League, www.indianhatkeleague.com, an entertaining take on IPL (Indian Premier League Cricket tournament). The Hatke League will go live on Friday with the finals on 24 May, 2009.

M A Madhusudan, CEO, Virgin Mobile India said, “The Indian Hatke League is all about interacting with the Indian youth and giving them a taste of some stimulating entertainment and sense of being part of a cricketing phenomenon in a HATKE way. For the Hatke champions, Virgin Mobile has some exciting prizes such as a Hyundai i20, Sony PSP and Virgin Mobile phones."

The website, designed and executed by Culture Mafia, has eight teams, with 11 players in each team. There will be over 20 day and night matches in this tournament. The teams have been christened - Deccan ChilliEaters, Kolkata Tram Riders, Chennai Super Muthus, Kakke’s XI Punjab, Mumbai Manoos, Delhi Dhinchaks, Rajasthan Muchhads and Royal ChillMaadis Bangalore! The team players are Sachim Martodkar, Veeru Suhag, Mike Lassi, Hari Bhajji, Lakshmipatni Maalaji and Handdraw Shallowman and also include Ziddu, for his wise cracks, and Inzoo, for his guru gyaan.

Virgin has also announced prizes worth Rs. 10 Lakh for Man of the Series, Most obsessed User, Top 10 fastest Sixes, Sixer of the Series, Man of the Match and grand prizes including Hyundai i20. Users can gain points for recommending a friend to the website, which can be redeemed against Virgin Mobile connections and many more such features.

Virgin also has plans to come up with community and fan pages, for the teams, promoters and profiles of 50 key players, on social networking sites such as Orkut, Facebook etc., for the Indian Hatke League.