The Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 event will kickstart India’s new domestic season when it begins on Tuesday. The edition will be played by 38 senior men’s teams and will have 136 T20s. The teams have been divided into five Elite Groups – A, B, C, D and E. Groups A, B and C will feature eight teams, while Groups D and E have seven teams each.

The team that finishes on top in each of the five groups will enter the quarterfinal. They will be joined by the winners of the three pre-quarterfinals. The pre-quarter-finals will be held between the runners-up of the five Groups and the side that has the highest points during the group stage from all the remaining teams across all groups.

Elite A: Mumbai, Railways, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Vidarbha, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram

Elite B: Puducherry, Punjab, Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad, Manipur, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh

Elite C: Arunachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Services, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala

Elite D: Andhra Pradesh, Nagaland, Baroda, Bihar, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Saurashtra

Elite E: Odisha, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Bengal, Chandigarh, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand

The event will be played from October 11 to November 5 in six venues: Rajkot, Mohali, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Lucknow and Indore.

Abdul Samad, Tilak Verma, Nitish Rana, Mayank Agarwal, Devdutt Padikkal, Manish Pandey, Ajinkya Rahane and Sanju Samson will be some players taking part.

Tamil Nadu are the defending champions, and are also the most successful side, having won the event three times since the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy was launched in 2006/07.

SMAT 2022/23 TV channels and where to watch

Not all games will be shown live. Star Sports 2 and Star Sports 2 HD will show select games daily. Live streaming for the select matches will be available on Disney+ Hotstar.

Baroda-Nagaland and Andhra-Saurashtra will be the games to be televised on the opening day.