Joel Price has given the new Varistha Cheltenham Premier T20 a big thumbs up.

The six-team competition, the brainchild of Cheltenham cricketer and businessman Sathya Prakash Timmaraju, launched last week and the early signs are certainly very encouraging.

Coloured clothing, a pink ball, music, prize money and plenty of razzmatazz has got everyone talking and Price, who is captain of Hatherley Hurricanes, said: “Fair play to Sathya, he’s put a lot on the line.

"It’s all been organised a bit last minute – the previous midweek competition wasn’t disbanded until March – but it’s been organised very well. He’s put in a lot of effort.”

He’s also putting in quite a bit of prize money – the competition winners will receive £800 and there are a number of other cash prizes up for grabs too – and Price continued: “The music and the coloured clothing have definitely made it more exciting for the club and the players.

“The prize money is also an extra incentive, we want to win it, we had over 100 people at the club for our game last week.”

That game was against Charlton Super Kings – the Hurricanes swept past their target of 85 with more than six overs and eight wickets in hand after Price had won the toss – and are looking forward to building on that impressive start when they travel to Tewkesbury Royals tomorrow.

That game last week was the first time that 24-year-old Price – a top-order batsman – had played with a pink ball.

“I’ve played with a white ball in under-19s cricket for the Hurricanes but the only time I’ve played with a pink ball is in the nets,” he said.

So how did he find it?

“It’s something a bit different, it swung about quite a bit at the start of the innings, but it stayed rock hard all innings,” said Price, who was listed to bat at six against the Super Kings.

And while Wednesday was his first experience of playing with a pink ball, it was also the first time that the former Sir Thomas Rich’s pupil had captained a side in adult cricket.

“I was captain at school but this was different,” he admitted. “It was quite difficult, I had so many bowling and batting options.”

Price is obviously going to be a key player if the Hurricanes are to make it out of the group – the top four qualify for the semi-finals – and go all the way to the final in early July.

The free-flowing batsman reckons his game is more suited to T20 than the longer formats, but he remains a big supporter of the 50 overs game.

He’s been a mainstay of Hatherley and Reddings’ Saturday league side for a number of seasons now and he said: “I don’t think you can just play T20, you need both. You still need the traditional aspect – 50 overs played in whites with a red ball.”

And Price is going to have plenty of opportunity to test himself further in a number of different formats in the months to come because he’s heading to Australia this winter to play for Melbourne club South Caulfield.

“I can’t wait,” he said. “I’m going out at the end of September for six months, I’ve just signed the contract.

“I’ll do some coaching as well and they said they’d find me a job, it will be a manual job, maybe a painter/decorator. 

“There’s two of us from the club going, fast bowler Henry Perks is also going.”

It’s a wonderful opportunity for both of them, of course, and they’d obviously love to head Down Under as the inaugural winners of the Cheltenham Premier T20.

That’s some way away yet but although it’s still very early days, it’s certainly a case of so far so good for Price.

For more information about the Cheltenham Premier T20, visit

https://cheltenham.premiert20.com