Historic Barabati Stadium found a new reason to fill up on Sunday. Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi inaugurated the Odisha T-20 League CM Trophy 2026, placing cricket on the same official ladder that already carries football, kho-kho, kabaddi and volleyball.
The message from the pitch was simple. Talent from Odisha’s 30 districts will no longer have to wait for a rare trial or a distant camp. For 10 days, the state’s most famous cricket ground becomes their audition room.
“After football, kho-kho, kabaddi and volleyball, cricket is now the fifth sport in the Chief Minister’s Trophy,” Majhi said. “This will identify rural cricket talent across our 30 districts and give them a new and bigger stage to show what they can do.”
He framed the league as more than a festival of sixes. Sport in India, he said, is no longer only a contest. In the T20 and franchise era it has become a career path. With former India batter Suresh Raina and Odisha’s own “Swing Master” Debashis Mohanty named ambassadors, the Chief Minister argued that young players now have both a platform and a pair of familiar faces to look up to.
“Odisha does not lack talent or infrastructure,” he said. “If selectors identify the right players, more national and IPL cricketers will come from this soil.”
That promise is being backed with concrete. The government is building modern stadiums in all 314 blocks at a cost of ₹4,124 crore. A high-tech sports complex is planned at Gothapatana in Bhubaneswar. Barabati itself, the Chief Minister added, will be fully renovated and recast as one of the country’s finest sporting venues. He also praised the Odisha Cricket Association’s work on an Under-14 cricket academy.
The league itself runs from September 20 to 29, with six franchises in the field: Kataka Panthers, Bhubaneswar Tigers, Puri Titans, Kendujhar Miners, Raurkela Superstars and Sambalpur Warriors. Seventeen matches are scheduled at Barabati, and a women’s exhibition game is also part of the programme. Kataka Panthers enter the season as defending champions.
Raina’s return carried its own memory. The former India international said his last appearance for the country at Barabati came against Sri Lanka. Standing there again, he called the state government’s move “truly commendable” and said it would push more youngsters to take cricket seriously.
“Many more talented cricketers will emerge from Odisha,” Raina said.
The opening ceremony drew a wide political and cricket crowd, including ruling-party chief whip Saroj Kumar Pradhan, Barabati-Kataka MLA Sofia Firdous, Sadar MLA Prakash Chandra Sethi, Choudwar MLA Sauvic Biswal, and OCA Apex Council member Pratap Chandra Pradhan, Tirtol MLA Ramakanta Bhoi, former cricketer Debashis Mohanty, OCA president Pankaj Lochan Mohanty, vice-president Jagamohan Pattnaik and secretary Sanjay Behera.
For Odisha cricket, the test now moves from speeches to scorecards. The floodlights are on. The franchises are ready. The argument from Barabati is that the next India or IPL name from the state may already be walking out in one of these six colours.
