Daijiworld Media Network - Doha
Doha, Apr 15: Karnataka Sangha Qatar (KSQ), a frontline organization from Karnataka state achieved another milestone when its sixth annual soft ball floodlit cricket tournament kicked-off at the Old Ideal Indian School on Tuesday April 14 at 7 pm. The colourful ceremony was witnessed by a huge crowd of cricket fans.
Capt Ravi Kumar, defense attaché, Embassy of India was the chief guest while Sheik Jassim Bin Soud Bin Fahad Al Thani, Jaralla Mohammed Al Marri, and Yousuf Hashim were the guest of honour for the evening. Arvind Patil, president, ICBF was a special invitee for the inaugural of the tournament.
Main sponsor of the evening V S Mannangi, general manager of Almuftah, event sponsor Ghazi of ALMA, Satish of Qatar Design Consortium, and Dr Sanjay Kudari, chief coordinator of KSQ cricket tournament were present on the dais.
The children’s wing of KSQ honored the guests by presenting bouquets. The guests handed over the mementoes to the captains of all the participating teams.
KSQ vice-president Nagesh Rao welcomed the gathering. The guests released the brochure containing full details of the tournament. Tufail Mateen and Dr Sanjay Kudri conducted the oath-taking ceremony. The participating teams who were present during the opening ceremony later held a wonderful march-past, led by Dr Sanjay, Mahesh Gowda, Manjunath and Murali. Thereafter, red and yellow balloons representing KSQ were released into the sky by all the team captains. The highlight of the evening was a camel parade and bike rally
In the evening general secretary of KSQ Mahesh Gowda introduced the MC. The stage programme was compered by Tufail Mateen, while sports secretary Mahesh Gowda proposed the vote of thanks. He thanked all the sponsors and those who extended support for the tournament, apart from the media for covering the event. The tournament was inaugurated by the guest of the evening.
Over 500 people witnessed the grand opening ceremony.
The 12 invitee teams participating in the tournament are Almuftah, M Pallonji, Karnataka Bulls, Tusker, Hanan, Qatar Tec, CBQ, Kerala X1, Serended, Tulu Koota,QDC and Centurion The matches will be played from April 14 to April 22 and the finals will be held on April 23.
The first match of the tournament was played between M Pallonji Qatar and Almuftah. Almuftah won the toss and elected to field. Batting first, M Pallonji scored huge total of 103 for the loss of six wickets in the allotted 10 overs. Ibrahim scored 28 just in 13 balls. In a nail-biting finish, Almuftah team scored 99 runs in 10 overs with the loss of 9 wickets. M Pallonji won the match by just 4 runs. Ibrahim was the star bowler for M Pallonji, scalping 3 wickets for 12 runs in the allotted 2 overs.
The second match of the evening was played between Centurion and Karnataka Bulls.
Ravi Shetty, Tulu Koota Qatar president and philanthropist, Niyaz Ahmed, president of KMCA, Prakashchandra Ajila, Bunts Qatar president, Divkar Poojary, president of Billawas Qatar and ICC secretary, Arvind Patil and Arun Kumar, former president of KSQ, Ramchandra Shetty, Seethram Shetty former president of Tulu Koota, Prakash Rao, Abdul Majeed SKMWA president Abdula Monu VP of Tulu Koota,Former President Of KSQ, K Prabhakar and executive committee members and dignitaries were present.
Umpires for the tournament – Furquan, Hameed, and Hassann and Yonus
Scorers – Amjad, Prakash, Sunil and Anand Babu
Commentators – Aejaz, Habib U l Nabhi, Imtiyaz, Murthy and Surendar
DJ and sound system - Anil Bolor
Kiran More who was wicket keeper for Indian team from 1986 has tentatively consented to be the chief guest for the finals and the grand closing ceremony on April 17.