Pics: Praveen Rodrigues
Daijiworld Media Network - Dubai
Media Release
Dubai, Feb 7: Gulf Sports International Limited (GSIL) for the very first time launched its much-awaited trophy and announced the Gulf Champions League – 2016 at The Ritz Carlton - DIFC.
The trophy was launched in a glittering event by well-known international cricket stars which included the likes of Michael Vaughan (England), Paul Collingwood (England), Sunil Joshi (India), Ashwell Prince (South Africa), Abdul Razzak (Pakistan) and Chamara Silva (Sri Lanka).
Team Capricorn Commanders which are currently participating in Masters Champions League – Sharjah were invited to grace the GSIL Gala Nite and president of GSIL Sadique Kaup expressed his gratitude to Arif Khan, manager, cricket operations of Team Capricorn Commanders. GSIL committee members thanked them for gracing the GSIL Gala Nite Trophy Launch event with their presence.
Michael Vaughan and Sunil Joshi wished GSIL and Gulf Champions League 2016 all the very best and hoped to see it become a big success in the region.
In addition, the GSIL Gala Nite was witnessed by all the participating team members as trophy launch was not the only agenda of the event. GSIL general secretary Don D'Souza took over the stage to welcome the participating teams' representatives who were present for the event. He stated a few important by-laws of GCL 2016 and went on to start the process of finalizing the fixtures.
The electrifying hard tennis ball tournament, Gulf Champions League 2016, will be conducted over two days on February 18 and 19. The league matches will be held at The Sevens Ground - Al Ain, Dubai and the knock-outs and finals will be held at Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah.
A total of 16 teams will be participating in this tournament and competing against each other in the same group to qualify for the knock-out rounds, where the teams will face the top teams of the other groups and go on to qualify for semi-finals and then the finals.
Representatives from the participating teams were requested to come and pick chits and were placed in the appropriate groups. Teams from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and UAE will participate in the tournament. The tournament is expected to witness some hard tennis cricket ball stars from India from the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and Hyderabad.
The event was compered by Sahil Zaheer, who was flown in all the way from India for this special event. He invited representatives from sponsors Udupi Friends Restaurant, Pacific Ventures, Life Pharma, Id Vision and Kais Middle East and media partner daijiworld.com on stage and they were presented with tokens of appreciation for their support towards organizing GCL-2016.
The Gala Nite ended on a positive note in addition with a vote of thanks to all the representing teams. GSIL president Sadique Kaup took this opportunity to thank committee member as well.
1. Mohammed Sami – Vice-president - UAE
2. NaserManjeshwar – Vice-president – QATAR
3. Mohammed Irshad - Treasurer - UAE
4. Don Dsouza – General secretary – Kuwait
5. Abdul Khader – Joint secretary – QATAR
6. Sharan Noronha – Committee member - Kuwait
7. Mohammed Niyaz – Committee member – UAE
8. Mohammed Haneef – Committee member – UAE
9. Firoz Amid – Committee member – UAE
10. Abdul Gaffor - Committee member – UAE
11. Praveen - Committee member – UAE