The Kings’ from Manchester were crowned County winners of the ECB T20 City Cup.

The City Cup in Lancashire is made up of teams formed on the back of the LCB’s South Asian Talent Search and is a T20 Competition played on Friday nights through July and August.

The South Asian Talent Search aimed at youngsters, aged 16-23 of South Asian heritage had trial venues taking place across Greater Manchester and Lancashire respectively.

Over 100 players attended these trials which led to the formation of five teams; Kings, Royals, Panthers, Daredevils and All Stars made up players from East & West Manchester, Preston, Blackburn / Burnley and Ashton / Oldham.

The Lancashire Competition was a tight affair with anyone of four teams having a chance of winning going into the final round of fixtures.

Despite a narrow defeat the Kings pipped the Panthers to the title by virtue of having a better net run rate, reflecting their fine performance over the entire competition.

Abid Hussain, coach for Kings, said: “This has been a fantastic experience for all the lads being involved from start to finish.

"Everyone contributed one way or the other and they have been a credit to the Lancashire Cricket Board, and represented themselves very well. On behalf of myself and the players I would like to thank LCB and James Cutt for organising this competition.”

The completion of this competition will now see ‘Team Manchester’ compete in the ECB National City Cup which starts on Bank Holiday Monday, August 29th against Wolverhampton.

If successful the team will go onto Semi Finals and Finals Day which is scheduled for the 18th September at Grace Road, Leicester.

There will be an opportunity for players to be skill tested by Performance Mangers from the ECB with a view to identifying talent from these groups of players who haven’t necessarily come from traditional club cricket backgrounds.

Prior to this ‘Team Manchester’ will play a fixture on August 26th against the Lancashire County Cricket Club Academy at Stretford CC highlighting the commitment of the County Club to work with the LCB around developing talented players.

James Cutt, Clubs & League Officer for the Lancashire Cricket Board, said: “This programme is fortunate to have coaching support from Qasim Ali of Lancashire CCC along with local coaches Farouk Hussain, Raj Arora, Abid Hussain and Mo Patel who take a lead on teams that enter.

“My thanks go to the ECB, our coaches, umpires, host clubs, volunteers and players who have all contributed to our local City Cup and we now look forward to our involvement in the ECB City Cup nationally.

"I hope the players enjoy this experience and have some success from a team and individual point of view. We also hope to link players to local clubs where those relationships don’t currently exist.”