CCC Seniors clinch ‘CRYcket 2015’ trophy

KUWAIT CITY, May 3: Just like the last year, this year too the Almighty has a full day of cloud cover for the “DNV-GL CRYcket 2015” children’s cricket tournament held on 10thApril. It kept the temperatures low and spirits high. Coupled with a full grass ground at the Fahaheel Sports Club, the event had all the ingredients to make it a memorable day - full of fun, enthusiasm and competition. Luckily we were also spared any likely rain interruptions which may have fallen any time, due to the overcast sky.

Starting from 1998, the Friends of CRY Club - Kuwait (FOCC-Kuwait) has organized “CRYcket” annually. The 18th tournament this year hit the 20 teams mark, only for the third time in its history. The tournament is open to all children, under 14, who may organize themselves in teams with participants from any school, nationality or locality.With over 270 children participating, it’s a huge climb from the 90 participants in the inaugural match 17 years ago. “CRYcket” is an annual softball cricket tournament, played in 7-over match format, and completed in a single day.

DNV-GL has continued to sponsor and support FOCC year after year and hence the name “DNV-GLCRYcket 2015”. Ten teams each participated in the Under-14 and Under-12 categories. This year too, for the second time, an all-girls team “Kuwait Women” played in the U-14 category. One other Under-12 team “Latifa Lion Cubs” enlisted with 4 girl participants, which was great fun to watch.

In the final of the U-14 trophy, the “Cricket Coaching Club (CCC) Seniors”, clinched the winner’s trophy, playing against “All Children Cricket Academy” who took the runners-up place. In the U12 category, “PACE-XI Juniors A” were victorious and the “DPS Red Titans” came in second place. The Payer-of-thetournament award in the U-14 category was earned by Shiv Govind of CCC Seniors and in the U-12 category it was Anurag Divekar of DPS Red Titans. A special Trophy for the youngest player went to Zaid Khokar of RCC Juniors B, who was all of 6 y 10 m of age.

M/s DNV-GL -Kuwait Branch, sponsored the event, along with TikTok Watches and American Tourister as Silver sponsors and Hussain & Qaisar International Ltd as co-sponsors. We also thank other sponsors Career Hunters, Oriental Restaurant, Bank Muscat, AlMailem Tyres, Gulf Mart, Air India, Curry Leaves Restaurant, Al-Ahli Bank of Kuwait, Dar Al-Saha Polyclinic, Payal Jewellers, KAPICO Travels, Kuwait Toastmasters Club and Well-wishers.

Our special thanks to the Umpires and scorers from Kuwait Cricket Association who are all experts in their respective fields and the event’s mainstays, without whom the event is not possible. We are grateful to HE the Ambassador of India, Shri Sunil Jain for supporting FOCC. We also acknowledge the support of the news publishers Arab Times, Kuwait Times, Q8india.com, IndiansInKuwait.com, goaworld.com, mangalorean.com, canaraworld.com, abroadindians.com, daijiworld.com and goanet.org as well as the Fahaheel Sports Club for providing us the venue. We also thank CRY India for being our invisible strength, year after year.

The Cry Buddies, (children who devoted their time for the event) Enaam Merchant, Vidit Shah, Lohit Vigneshwar, Prapti Mishra, Qaisarali Merchant and Sreeniketh Madabhushi were in full steam to keep the Kid’s Corner, the Buy for CRY stall, Essay and Drawing Competitions running and entertaining the children between their matches. This year some very special items were donated by our silver sponsors, along with the usual toys, books and other interesting items on bargain sale, which were donated by good Samaritans. The Raffle draw was again hugely successful with 11fabulous prizes to be won.

The participating teams in the “DNVGLCRYcket2014” tournament were: Under-14 Category: All Children Cricket Academy, Cricket Coaching Club (CCC) Seniors, DPS Blue Strikers, DPS Red Devils, Future Challengers, Jabriya Giants, Kuwait Women, MACEAA Tigers, Mangaf Cricket Club and PACEXI Seniors.

The Under-12 Category had Cricket Coaching Club Juniors, DPS Blue Warriors, DPS Red Titans, FAIPS Balaji, Latifa Lion Cubs, Pace-XI Juniors-A, Pace-XI Juniors-B, Riggae Cricket Coaching (A), Riggae Cricket Coaching (B) andYoung Stars Cricket Academy.

This year we had a special guest, Dr Hind AlBahar, who is a professional doctor, a humanitarian and a great supporter of FOCC and our mission, attend the semi-finals and finals. Our other special guests Mr. Hassan Merchant and ZahidMerchant, who are the co-sponsors of the event, also graced the occasion as Chief Guests. We are thankful for their commitment to CRYcket over the years. Dr. Hind, and the Merchant brothers presented the Trophies, medals and certificates from CRYIndia to the winning teams and all the participating children.

The FOCC’s Souvenir was also released which included a motivating message from India’s Ambassador to Kuwait, HE Shri Sunil Jain, a message from Ms. Susan Varghese, Head of CRY Global Operations and a brief on the FOCC supported project “Manav Ashrita Sansthan (MAS)” in India.

Stuart Broad and Ben Stokes then accounted for West Indies captain Denesh Ramdin and all-rounder Jason Holder respectively, both to catches by wicketkeeper Jos Buttler. Anderson was the last man out at the start of the day as England’s final three wickets added only 17 more runs to their overnight total.

Jerome Taylor made up for a wicketless first day by taking all three, including the last two off consecutive deliveries.

Then it was the turn of England’s most successful wicket-taker in Tests to steal the spotlight as the relentless tormentor of the Caribbean top-order, dispensing with both openers before adding the important scalp of second Test centurion Marlon Samuels in an outstanding opening spell of bowling. Left with just over an hour to the lunch interval, West Indies started poorly with the all-Bajan opening pair of Kraigg Brathwaite and Shai Hope departing quickly to the despair of the home fans packed into the stands.

Anderson’s second ball of the innings was a perfect outswinger that peeled off Brathwaite’s bat for Jordan to take the catch at second slip before he had scored.

In his first Test innings, Hope was unable to cope with the wiles of Anderson, edging low to Alastair Cook who made no mistake in coming up with the catch millimetres from the ground.

His hands were less sure in the next over that granted Bravo a reprieve off the exasperated Broad, although Anderson needed no assistance in removing Samuels. Kuwait beats Al-Nasr in KBA Cup: Kuwait SC beat Al-Nasr 84-52 in the team’s third match of Kuwait Basketball Association’s (KBA) Cup on Saturday.

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