[edit] Rain Or Shine, Wind Or Heat - Cricket Prevails !

Staff Reports

Atlanta, GA – May 6: A fabulous weekend full of surprises, upsets and dominating performances from cricketers, both casual and serious, brought to the fore an organization, Vibha, run by dedicated volunteers striving for a noble cause to uplift under-privileged children in India. It also showed that even in the heart of the South, ‘Hotlanta’, cricket has a passionate following, with 48 teams coming in over the weekend of the 3rd and 4th of May, 2003, from all over the region, from South Carolina, from Alabama, from Tennessee - and of course from all around the metro Atlanta area. Vibha is an 11-year-old, volunteer driven organization with a mission to enable child development. Through action centers in over 15 cities nationwide, their 250 volunteers work to raise awareness in the local community about children’s issues and to generate funds currently supporting more than 56 projects in India and 8 projects in the US.

The Maharaja Cricket Cup has become the signature event for Vibha Atlanta, that specializes in organizing entertaining fund-raising cultural and sports events throughout the year. There’s no question Vibha’s Springfest, Walk/Run, Indoor Sports Gala (Khel Mela) and numerous other plays and concerts over the years have drawn a lot of interest and are popular family attractions. However it seems like every year, the Cricket Cup has grown bigger not only in terms of number of teams and participants, but in terms of excitement and overall value. This is the 5th year for the tournament and it has grown from a mere 16 teams of 6 players each to 48 teams of 8 players each in a short span of time. A lot of teams circle this weekend on their calendars and wait all year long to either prove themselves as winners once again or challenge themselves yet again after disappointing finishes in the previous year. The popularity of this tournament has grown so much that Srinivas Vemulapalli - the chief organizer this year - despite his best efforts to accommodate everyone, had to turn down several teams in order to maintain a very tight schedule, made even tighter by the rough weather. For the second year in a row, they will be spilling into a 3rd day, with all the quarterfinals, semifinals and the finals being played on the 10th of May.

This year, the tournament was also fortunate to have a former West Indian Test cricketer, a swashbuckling opening batsman from Jamaica, Alvador Basil Williams as the chief guest at the opening ceremony, on Saturday morning (SEE INTERVIEW). Williams, nicknamed ‘Shot Gun’ back in his playing days when he smashed 18 fours on his way to a century in his debut series against the world’s fastest bowlers Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee from Australia. He showed us some of that class in facing a few balls from a few participants, raring to bowl to an international class player, as part of the opening ceremony. Mr. Williams also narrated a couple of interesting stories about his playing days and left everyone inspired with his encouraging words on the good efforts of Vibha. He also went out of his way to even contribute to their cause with a generous donation.

The tournament was played with a ‘hard tennis’ cricket ball! A tournament record was set late Sunday evening, when 32 runs were scored off the last over of the first inning by Arun from Webridge Monsters against India Sports-2. He scored 5 sixes and a 2 in the last six balls on their way to an amazing total of 115. Last year’s finalists the Chattanooga Vols showed their class advancing to next weekend’s rounds with their usual dominant performance. And we had a few surprising dominant performances from a very young Cleveland, Tennessee team consisting of boys averaging 15 years in age and the young Georgia Tech Playboys who smashed 117 runs in 10 overs, including a brilliant 76 by Yogi, who made life difficult for some volunteers by repeatedly sending balls into orbit (the thick bushes beyond the fences, really).

Teams were so into the game, that they even insisted on playing in heavy rain on Saturday - stopping only when they were forced to when there were huge claps of thunder and lightning and the warning siren went off at the ground. The heavy water soaked ball and the Astroturf were difficult to hit around and scores were low on Saturday.

Sunday was a different story altogether. The sun was out in all its brilliance and scores soared - with several teams scoring more than 90 in the allotted ten overs. In sharp contrast to the previous day, it became a batsman’s game. With bowlers struggling to contain the batsman, their confidence shaken a bit, a lot of extras were given. There were overs as long as 17 balls long! And more than a hundred sixes were smashed - although none reached the ‘Hit Me’ banner in the middle of the field, that one of the Gold Sponsors- Future Tech. placed. If a batsman could hit the banner with a six - Future Tech would have made a $50 donation to Vibha and the batsman would get a free T-shirt. The weekend’s cricket demonstrated how great teams click together and how some wonderful individual performances can carry a whole team through. Amit Bhatnagar put together two outstanding all round games to carry his team Great Acht into the next round and still remains unbeaten in his batting ! While other excellent innings, like Sachin from ECS who scored 57 helped pull a huge upset in beating the Dunwoody All-Stars - the defending champions, who usually dominate on the field. They will surely be missed next weekend. The Maharaja Cricket Cup was made possible and has been successful thus far, thanks to the efforts of so many dedicated volunteers, who set up the ground, provide refreshments, organize the draws, facilitate and conduct the games from 8AM till later than 11PM on both the days. The tournament is also very thankful to the title sponsor - Maharaja Indian Restaurant and all the Gold sponsors including FIT, Pyramid Consulting, Mirch Masala, India Sports & Rec Center and Atlanta Samachar. The tournament organizers and volunteers are also grateful to The Clay Oven Indian restaurant that provided food and drinks to all the volunteers and sponsors. The India Club of Georgia Club also made it possible to host the tournament at the very convenient Georgia Tech SAC field in downtown Atlanta.

Despite the challenges posed by the weather and the competitive nature of the games, the players played all the games with a lot of good sportsmanship and with regard to the wonderful cause the tournament represented. The remaining rounds promise to be extremely exciting and a fantastic finish is in store for next weekend. So come watch the awesome end to this year’s Maharaja Cricket Cup starting at 8AM Saturday on the 10th of May 2003 at the SAC Fields at Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA!

Results: Round 1: Lagaanwalla (43) beat Champions (42) Killer Khalsas (60) beat Dark Horses (53) Prabir (67) beat 39ers (48) Greenville (57) beat Runners up (56) Cleveland (52) beat Delta (51) Sridhar (84) beat Terminators (81) Chattanooga Vols (65) beat Pyramid-C (64) India Sports-A (59) beat Martin Maniacs(56) Pyramid B (77) beat Birmingham (76) Manhattan (66) beat NetIP (65) Sachin (57) beat Pyramid A (55) Dunwoody All-Stars (85) beat Prajwal (38) Satyam (69) beat Alpha CC (37) Georgia Tech Playboys (117 Yogesh 76 ) beat Sagar Sonar (96 Guru 42*) Anand Srinivasan (55) beat Vector 2 (54) High Octane (32) beat Ritesh (30) Vector Sports Club (86 Subhash 28*) beat Rahul (80) Great Acht (43 Amit 26*) beat Nag (42) Web Ridge Monsters (60 Vikas 25) beat Cosmos (58) India Sports-2 (64 Daya 36*) beat Murali Iyer (63) Webridge Sixers (92 Shyam 53*) beat FIT (60) Satish & Co. (33) beat Vibha Elite (31) Core Card (63) beat Vetri (62) Mohsin (74 Shishen 31) beat Purple Bulls (73)

Round 2: Killer Khalsas (48) beat Lagaanwala (46) Prabir (86) beat Greenvilee (58) Cleveland (59) beat Sridhar (58) Chattanooga Vols (69 Ravi 37*) beat India Sports A (68) Pyramid B (68) beat Manhattan (63) Sachin ECS (79 Sachin 57*) beat Dunwoody All-Stars (78) GT Playboys (67) beat Satyam (66) High Octane (97 Satish 41*) beat Anand Srinivasan (73) Great Acht (61 Amit 42*) beat Vector Sports Club (60 Amish 3-17) Web Ridge Monsters (115 Srini 27, Arun 32*) beat India Sports 2 (30) Web Ridge Sixers (90) beat Satish & Co (57 Sanjay 4-12)