MUMBAI: Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Rajasthan Royals and Dainik Bhaskar newspaper have announced the launch of Cricket Star Rajasthan, a talent hunt programme.

Cricket Star seeks to uncover cricket talent in Rajasthan. And for Rajasthan Royals (RR), it is an opportunity to further build its brand in Rajasthan and so will travel through the state of Rajasthan to test young cricketers.

In this edition after a two-stage process, the winner of Cricket Star Rajasthan 2012 will to intern with the Rajasthan Royals. As part of the internship, the winner will get opportunities to train with the Rajasthan Royals team, be part of the practice sessions and get exclusive mentorship of Rajasthan Royals coaches. Dainik Bhaskar will also provide publicity for the winner through all their media publications.

Sanskar School Jaipur is the Associate Sponsor for Cricket Star Rajasthan.

This talent hunt is for the age group of 14 to 21 years as on 1st Sep 2012. Applicants can be from any part of Rajasthan and will have to come to one of the cities where the selection trials will take place such as Jodhpur, Udaipur and Jaipur. The application process for this programme takes place from 7- 22 October.

Applicants will be required to send an SMS to a designated number (to be announced shortly), giving their name, and preference of city of trial. After sending the SMS, the applicants will receive a registration code, and date and venue of trials.

The first stage is the selection trials to be held at Jodhpur, Udaipur and Jaipur. The winners at each city will be invited to the Cricket Star Academy to be run at Sanskar School Cricket Grounds. These cricketers will be tested through matches and cricket sessions by Rajasthan Royals experts and coaches. At the end of the academy, the coaches will announce the winner ? Cricket Star Rajasthan.

Emerging Media, one of the franchise owners, had introduced this talent hunt concept way back in 2006. Incidentally, it was the country?s first cricket based reality show.