Daijiworld Media Network - Doha
Doha, Apr 6: Karnataka Sangha Qatar (KSQ), a frontline organization from Karnataka state achieved another milestone when its fifth annual soft ball floodlit cricket tournament kicked-off at the Old Ideal Indian School on SaturdayApril 5 at 7 pm. The colorful ceremony was witnessed by a huge crowd of cricket fans.
Capt Ravi Kumar, Defense Attaché, Embassy of India was the chief guest while Eisa Ali Ghanem, head of Olympic/Paralympics Sports Unit/Cricket, Qatar National Olympic Committee was the chief guest and David Dougan, head of Global Governance, Doha Bank was the guest of honour for the evening.
Main sponsor of the evening V S Mannangi, general manager of Almuftah, event sponsor Ghazi of ALMA, Satish of Qatar design Consortium, K M Verghese, ICC official, Nilangshu Dey, ICBF president Kareem Abdulla and Mansoor from Qatar Cricket Association were present on the dais.
The ladies wing of KSQ honoured the guests by presenting bouquets. The guests handed over the mementoes to the captains of all the participating teams.
KSQ Dynamic president, Deepak Shetty, welcomed the gathering. The guests released the brochure containing full details of the tournament. Anil Bolor and Dr.Sanjay Kudri conducted the oath-taking ceremony. All the participating teams were present during the opening ceremony. There was a wonderful march past held thereafter in which the teams participated actively this was led by Dr Sanjay, A wonderful and grand march-past was held thereafter and 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 on the dias.The progamme was compered by SK Naidu, while the Sports secretary, Anil Bolor proposed the 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 the evening.
Over 500 people witnessed the grand opening ceremony.
The first match of the tournament was played between M Pallonji Qatar and Petrofac . After having won the toss, M Pallonji elected to bat. By batting first M Pallonji scored huge total 182 by losing only one wicket in allotted 10 overs firoz of Pallonji Scored thundering record of 126 just in 36 balls Chasing the target Petrofac team scored 45 runs in 10 overs with the loss of 7 wickets M Pallonji won the match by 137 Runs.
The second match of the evening was played between Qatar Diar and Masraf A l Rayan. Qatar Diar won the toss and elected to field first. Qatar Diar scored 58 for 8 in 10 overs. In reeply Mashraf al rayan scored 60 runs by losing 5 wickets.in the last ball Masraf A l Rayan required 4 runs for the victory but Zaheer hit a massive six of final ball of the innings. Finally Masraf A l Rayan won the match by 5 wickets in the nail bitting match.
The matches will be played from April 5 to April 17 and the finals will be held on April 17. There are 12 teams participating in the tournament - Hannan, M Pallonji, Petrofac, Galfar, QatarTec, Tulu Koota, Al Muftah, KMCA, Qatar Diar, QDC, Tuskers and Masraf A l Rayan.
Ravi Shetty, Bunts Qatar president and philanthropist, Niyaz Ahmed, president of KMCA, Sunil D'Silva, president of MCC, Seethram Shetty, president of Tulu Koota Qatar, Divkar Poojary, president of Billawas Qatar, Arvind Patil and Arun Kumar, former president of KSQ, Ramchandra Shetty from ICBF, former president of Tulu Koota, Prakashchandra Ajila, former president of Tulu Koota, Chidananda Naik, GM of M pallonji, MI Farid of Veterans’ Cricket Association of Qatar and executive committee members and dignitaries were present.
Umpires for the tournament – Furquan, Hameed, and Hassann
Scorers – Amjad, Iqbal, Sunil and Anand Babu
Commentators - Habib Ul Nabhi, SK Naidu, , Abdula Salam, Murthy, Imtiyaz and Zafar Abbasi
DJ and Sound system - Nitesh D
Subramaniam Badrinath who is Tamil Nadu Ranji team captain also played for India test cricket, ODI and T20 has tentatively consented to be the chief guest for the finals and grand closing ceremony on April 17.