Bahrain: Women's Cricket - Kannada Sangha wins Trophy
News and Pics by Ronald D F D'souza.
Daijiworld Media Network - Bahrain (SP)
Bahrain, Jul 27: It was a great day for the ladies residing Bahrain region. Bahrain Kannada Sangha (BKS) decided to organize a cricket trophy only for the ladies, on Friday July 24, at Al-Ahli Indoor Stadium here.
The inauguration was held at 9.30 am by Mohsin Kamal, former Pakistani test player, who now is the national coach for sports and games at Al Ahli stadium. He was a test cricketer, a medium fast bowler, who played under the captaincy of Imran Khan and Sarfraz Nawaz. He played 19 one day international matches too. He was a coach for the Bangladesh cricket team for the 2003 world cup. Three women, Jean, Janet and Suchitra dreamt of holding this type of tournament and they could realize their dream with the cooperation of Kannada Sangha Bahrain.
In all, four teams participated in the tournament. They were Kannada Sangha- Bahrain, Flaming Cheethas, Indian Club and Robaco. It was a seven-a-side cricket tournament, with each of the participating teams consisting of seven players, which played the innings of six overs each. Ball-by-ball commentary was provided by Kuldip Mearol, Amaranath Rai and Kamalaksha Amin.
The first match was played by Robaco against Flaming Cheethas, in which Robaco beat Flaming Cheethas by two wickets. The tournament was played as per the league system and at the end, for the third place, Flaming Cheethas team was pitted against Robaco. In the keenly contested match, Robaco lost to Flaming Cheethas and in the final match between Kannada Sangh Bahrain and Indian Club, Poornima Jagdish played wonderfully, in all the departments of the game, i.e., bowling, fielding and batting. She was also the captain of BKS. Indian club team was relegated to runners up position because of her brilliant performance, but the losing team posed a touch challenge to the winning team, but at the end, lost by three wickets.
The prize distribution ceremony was held at 6.00 pm the same day. Chief guest of the ceremony was Shubha Damani, former president of Indian Ladies Association. President of BKS, Austin Santhosh, introduced the chief guest, who is well known for her social work and other activities specially, the 'Sneha' project for poor children of Indian community, to the audience.
Shubha Damani in her address said she hails from Kodagu region and graduated with Kannada literature. She expressed her happiness to see a good participation by the women cricketers in the tournament and also for the fact that a large gathering of women had come to watch the proceedings. She reminisced the contribution made by the great Kannada poet, 'Kuvempu' to Kannada literature, and recited a few lines from one of his poems. She also thanked the officials of Kannada Sangha for inviting her for the prize distribution ceremony and gave away the trophies and mementos to the following winners:
Winning team: Kannada Sangha Bahrain
First runner up: Indian club.
Second runner up: Flaming Cheethas.
Best Bats-woman: Mellisa Rebello(Flaming Cheethas).
Good thrower: Rehana(Robeco).
Best fielder: Niktha Gomes(Flaming Cheethas).
Tournament all rounder: Poornima Jagdish (BKS).
Series best all rounder: Poornima Jagdish BKS).dian club.
Second runner up: Flaming Cheethas.
Best Bats-woman: Mellisa Rebello(Flaming Cheethas).
Good thrower: Rehana(Robeco).
Best fielder: Niktha Gomes(Flaming Cheethas).
Tournament all rounder: Poornima Jagdish (BKS).
Series best all rounder: Poornima Jagdish BKS).