Indian professional audio visual industry, and its vibes with the game of cricket has become something like an AV folklore. For, it has not only incubated a new premier league, but also brought it to the live action on a fast-track mode- in just two and half months. This, with a nobler ideal and intent- like the one that actually heralded whole mindset a few years ago.
While it took a little la-IPL mode somewhere in the middle, it again appears taking a new ‘avatar’ beckoning with a new promise.
Bengaluru-headquartered AV Systems Integration Enterprise SIGMA AVIT Solutions has launched its very own cricket league, and the inaugural edition will take place on Saturday, the 17th of October, 2026 in Bengaluru.
………………………………………………………………
Cricket, and Indian AV: a very energizing vibe. A new networking outfield with lot of sporting intent and talent.
Exactly 10 years ago – around the same time – the seeding for cricketing spirit among the AV folks took shape with two of Indian AV’s most dynamic ‘captains’ formulating a new sporting pasture in the Garden City of India, as a promising ‘greenfield’ capital of Indian AV.
AVCL – as it was christened – had all the zest and zing thing to bring the industry together, and did have a very entertaining run, with charity and CSR as one of its two objectives, besides the industry camaraderie.
While the euphoria took the industry along its stride for a good four years, the tides of time and a new ‘competitive format’ took a lead and went about scaling up ambitiously.
However, the passion, and zeal for something special, with a unique standing in the matrix of the league, has taken the shape of a new premier league: SPL, or the SIGMA Premier League.
Understandably, a brainchild of Prakash Gururao, one of the two Founder-Directors of the Bengaluru-headquartered AVSI major Sigma AVIT Solutions, the new cricketing league is an initiative to promote a healthy camaraderie among the Sigma employees from across the country.
According to Vishwanath, the person-in-charge for the inaugural edition, it’s been in the mind of Sigma management for sometime, and came out spoken in August this year. That they wanted to shape and play it out before the Deepawali festive season, it all turned out into a fast-track action packed initiative.
“The objective is mainly to promote and encourage a healthy camaraderie among Simga work forces towards a common good,” he said. “That the Sigma family has grown to be very sizeable enterprise with offices all over the country, it was felt to have a sporting connect amongst the Sigma Avians so that they not only develop the happy brotherhood amongst themselves, but also contribute to the common and social good,” he explained.
The la-IPL ‘Spl’ of the SPL
That the company has offices and workforces stationed across the metropolis fields in the country, it proposed to have teams from all over the country. Understandably, it received incredible response from people, with the Mumbai circuit turning up maximum registrations.
That they did not have adequate time to evolve a very own hose-style nomenclature for the teams, it adopted a la-IPL naming pattern for a quick kickstart, as also for an inspirational outing.
It therefore has eight teams with Sigma branding and IPL-sort team names:
The competition will be combo of six-over matches, but with full 11-member teams. While the Mumbai circuit has two exclusive teams with Sigma Champions and Sigma Strikers, the other teams are combination of people from different cities’ offices.
The matches will be played day long, from 8 am onwards on 17 October, at the Ashok Raising Star Cricket Ground & Academy, in Bengaluru.
“We do have a prize money for the winners and runners too, but that’s a bit confidential for now,” Vishwanath reveals, “the entire costing is borne by Sigma, and no no sponsors here,” he asserts. “We decided to keep it a prideful factor for us, and understandably it is a Sigma Family tournament.”
So, eight teams will be divided into two groups of four teams each, and each team in the group will play against the remaining three. The top two teams will move to the next level in a la-IPL format.
CSR – the Underlying Sensibility
However, Sigma does keep its CSR factor aloft, Vishwanath asserts, and here is where Sigma decided to invite the industry fraternity to join forces.
According to him, the company has combination of team from Kramer, Sennheiser, Extron, Crestron, EIS Tech Ifra, Mindstec, Samsung and LG.
“We will have a few charity matches with the OEM friends, and the proceeds of these matches will straightaway go to charity,” Vishwanath revealed. “We have identified a few beneficiaries for this, and will have the details soon.”
According to him, while the intent is to make it an annual fare, the detailed planning is under evolution process yet.
While it is inherently a family networking sort via the country’s most popular sport, Sigma does keep its CSR factor aloft and contributes to society’s good, he maintained.
So, that’s the ‘spl’ of the new SPL in Indian AV.
