MUMBAI: For this weekend, Bollywood actor Riteish Deshmukh has decided to swap the grease paint that is customary to an actor, and will don suntan lotion instead, at the 4-day long extravaganza called the ‘Celebrity Cricket League’.

The T20 championship will see 8 celebrity teams battle it out for the coveted title, and will provide tons of glamour and entertainment for audiences in the country. The matches will be played under floodlights, at venues like Siliguri, Dubai, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai, Ranchi and the finals in Bangalore.

We caught up with Marathi mulga Riteish Deshmukh and his wife Genelia D’Souza at the launch of the tie-up between their CCL team ‘Veer Marathi’ and AbhiBus online (a bus ticketing website) in Mumbai. Riteish looked ever the cool team owner, as he proudly wore his orange team jersey, and his wife Genelia followed her husband’s choice of attire.

Riteish looked excited to kick off the CCL, and we were curious to see if he believed his first-time team has what it takes to win the tournament. Deshmukh confidently said: “This league is happening between 8 teams and every team is really tough to beat. And we have confidence on ourselves and are extremely prepared… like our team already said that when we are out there, we are going to give our best and will enter the ground with the hope to win.”

And thus it looks like all the 8 teams are ready for the star wars of sorts, on the cricket pitch. The league has already seen a fair share of buzz, with 40 Bollywood and regional film stars participating in this season of CCL.