Doha: KSQ's Third Cricket Tournament Kicks off in Style
Alexis Castelino
Daijiworld Media Network - Doha
Doha, Mar 8: Karnataka Sangha Qatar (KSQ) achieved another milestone on Wednesday February 7, when its third floodlit cricket tournament kicked off at 7 pm. All the participating teams were present at the opening ceremony at the old campus of Ideal Indian School.
Chief guest of the evening Dr Mubarak Ahmed Al Shahwani, vice-president of Camel Racking Committee, guest of honour and main sponsor of the tournament general manager M Pallonji Qatar and well-known social activist Chidananda Naik, Anil Nauital, first secretary at Indian Embassy, K M Verghese, ICC president, and president of KSQ V S Mannangi were present of the dias for the opening ceremony. The ladies wing of KSQ honoured the guests by presenting flower bouquets.
KSQ president, V S Mannangi, welcomed the gathering. Chief guest and guests of honour released the brochure containing full details of the tournament. Sanjay Kudri, vice-president of KSQ conducted the oath-taking ceremony and announced the fixtures of the tournament. Twelve teams are participating in this tournament.
A wonderful and grand march-past was held thereafter and balloons were released into the sky by all the team captains. The highlight of the evening was a camel parade.
The progamme was compered by the dynamic Aravind Patel, while general secretary enthusiastic and active Deepak Shetty, proposed vote of thanks. He thanked all the sponsors and those who have extended support for the tournament, apart from the media, for covering the event.
The tournament was inaugurated by the guest of honour of the evening, Anil Nauital, first secretary at Indian Embassy.
Chief Guest of the evening DrMubarak Ahmed Al Shahwani in his message to those gathered thanked the Indian community for their contribution towards Qatar and congratulated the organizers for organizing a beautiful and colorful opening ceremony of the cricket tournament.
Anil Nauital First secretary at Indian Embassy he praised KSQ for the efforts taken by KSQ in organizing this tournament.
The first match of the tournament was played between Al Muftah V/S Hanan.
The second match was scheduled to play between Galfar and Lagaan.
More than 300 people witnessed the opening ceremony.
Main sponsors of the Tournament were M Pallonji-Qatar and ALMA, associate sponsors were QDC and Almuftah co-sponsors Doha Bank, KIA Motors, UGE and HBK
Umpires for the tournament - Abdul Salam,Anil,Tahir Mahamood and Usman
Scoreres - Amjadand Fazal
Commentators - Aijaz,Habib Ul Nabhi,SK Naidu,Sattar and Zafar Abbasi
DJ and Sound system - Nitesh D and Harsha
The guests handed over mementoes to the captains of all the participating teams. The winners will be awarded trophies during the closing ceremony on March 16.
Former Indian cricketer Gundappa Ranganath Viswanath, will be the chief guest at the finals of the annual Karnataka Sangha Qatar Invitational Cricket Tournament to be held on March 16. Popularly known as Vishy during his playing days, Viswanath was instrumental in India scoring several victories in Test cricket in the ’70s and early ’80s. He had scored 14 centuries in Tests and was the first Indian to score centuries against all six other Test playing nations those days. He had scored more than 6,000 runs.