News: Anand Sanil
Pics: Dilip Correa
Daijiworld Media Network - Muscat
Muscat, Jan 23: The second Annual Sports Meet of Oman Billawas was organized at the Muscat Sports Club Ground, Wadi Kabir, Sultanate of Oman here recently.
The day turned out to be another joyous occasion for all the Billawa community friends and relatives to get-together and participate in various sports and games organized by the working committee.
The response from the community members was overwhelming with over 400 members along with their children gathering at one place for the event. It was heartening to see participation in large numbers from distant places like Barka, Nizwa and Sohar.
The sports meet was declared open with the release of three pigeons, by the president, Pitamber B Alke, founding member, Ashok Suvarna and chief co-ordinator of the working committee, Anand J Sanil symbolizing peace, harmony and togetherness among Billawas in Oman.
This was followed with a minute of silent prayer, in remembrance of the departed soul of late Kushala Poojary, one of the active members of Oman Billawas.
After a sumptuous breakfast, the first semi-final cricket match between ‘Poojary XI A’ (worldwide business house team) and ‘SNG XI C’ (Kushal Bangera team) was held, followed by various sports events for children of different age groups. The second semi-final cricket match was held just before the stroke of lunch between ‘Kudroli XI’ (NPA events team) and ‘Billawa Challengers’ (Red Rose team).
The preliminary rounds of cricket matches were already conducted in a grand manner at the Sogex Sports ground, Al Ghobra on January 7. There was a huge response and participation for the event, with 10 teams of cricketing Billawas from all over Oman participating in the full-day event. More than 250 Billawa cricket enthusiasts had gathered to participate / encourage the players. Refreshments and lunch arrangements was also made for all the participants on the day.
Lunch at the Muscat Sports Club ground, Wadi Kabir was served at 1.00pm and the day continued with sports events for adults, both male and female. A lot of new enthusiastic faces, both old and young were seen to be actively participating in various sports/games events - be it the 100 metre dash, shot-put, the tug-off war or women’s cricket.
The final cricket match held in the second session between ‘Poojary XI’ (worldwide business house team) and ‘Billawa Challengers’ (Red Rose team) was an entertaining one to watch for all. The final was won comfortably by ‘Billawa Challengers’. The track and field event continued with keen participation from all.
While there was tough competition in the 100 metre dash as well as the shot-put for men, the tug-off war for both the men and women was the most entertaining with 8 men’s and 4 women’s teams vying for the top honours. In toughly fought out finals of the ‘Tug-off war’ matches, ‘Young Billawa’ team from men and ‘Star Oman’ team from women, emerged victorious by narrow margins.
The president P B Alke, along with founder members Ashok Suvarna, Dr C K Anchan, S K Poojary and Umesh Bantwal were present throughout the day encouraging the participants. The organizing committee members, Sujith Anchan, Ramakrishna, Guruprasad Amin, Mahesh Salian, Suvi Bangara, Suchetna Anchan, H Suhan, Dinesh Poojary, Harish Poojary, S N Sudhir & Kavitha Sanil had conducted the events with utmost professionalism.
Nitin Salian from Sohar, along with Umesh Jeppoo gave vivid, expert commentary of all the cricket matches as well as various sports events. The sports co-ordinator, Gangadhar Poojary along with his sports team ensured that all the sports and games planned for various age groups of children as well as adults were conducted smoothly and on schedule.
The cricket teams were sponsored by Al Nasal Al Massy, Al Amin Golden enterprises – interior decorators, Worldwide Business House, Red Rose, Middle East Marketing Services, NPA Events, Mazoon Printing and three other well-wishers.
Muttrah Cold Stores and Mehdi Foods LLC had come forward to arrange for refreshments. There were also a number of high value electronic items sponsored by Omasco, OHI Electronics and Daewoo electronics, which were up for grabs for the Cricket winners and in the lucky-dip that was organized at the end of the day.
Apart from this Ashwin Dharamsey, Jinesh Dharamsey, Middle East Petroleum, Gangadhar Kotian, Ramanath Bangera, Prasad, Jaya, Chandrakant and Amar Bangara had made financial contributions in support of the programme.
The lush green lawns of the Muscat Sports Club ground at Wadi Kabir was the perfect setting for a beautiful day of sports, games, fun and enjoyment for all participating members as well as children. All committee members and volunteers had gone out of the way to ensure that the entire Billawa community in Oman had an occasion to participate and live the day to the fullest extent with beautiful memories to carry home.
Anand J Sanil proposed the vote of thanks. He thanked the Sultan Qaboos bin and the various sponsors and all the volunteers who had supported in making the programme a wonderful success. The encouragement and support received from all the founding members was also appreciated and acknowledged. He also thanked all the community members for participating in large numbers with great zeal and enthusiasm and making the event a memorable one.