People walk for a cause, sing for a cause and play for a cause. Here they played cricket for a cause. At a time getting a sizeable number of spectators for the game of cricket in the US may be a major task, the IDRF Boston chapter, not only attracted enough spectators, but raised a record high $14,000 to support developmental projects focusing on education, childcare and healthcare. 

A team of students and friends from UMass Lowell (UML) led by Sabeeh Ehsan won IDRF’s 5th Annual Cricket tournament in a thrilling final match by beating last year’s winner Infosys held on July 24th .

A whopping total of 75 teams participated in the tournament beginning July 16, simultaneously at Burlington and Norwood in Massachusetts and Nashua, New Hampshire.  Each team consisted of six players plus one reserve and each game was played for seven over per innings using heavy tennis balls. All matches were played in a fun environment while maintaining a competitive edge.

Students from various area universities including the University of Massachusetts Lowell and Dartmouth campuses, Bentley College and Tufts University participated in this year's tournament. Teams from Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and some players from New Jersey participated in the event. Young professionals working in various hi-tech companies in the area Sun Microsystems, EMC, Analog Devices, Philips, Patni, Infosys, Bladelogic, Computer Associates took part in the tournament.

Each team paid an entrance fee of $90. Rohan Jamdar who coordinated the event said about 525 players participated in what could be one of the biggest sporting events organized by any Indian organization in USA. He said “Enthusiastic participation from youngsters all over New England region clearly showed that they identified with IDRF's mission of helping the poor while enjoying cricket the old-fashioned way”.

The Platinum sponsors of this year’s tournament included Patni Computer Systems, a leading Indian software company and Hope Foundation of Concord, MA; Leader Bank, a premier financial services organization and DirecTV, a well-known satellite TV provider were the Gold sponsors.

The tournament started with a packed schedule from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the first weekend resulting in more than 45 games in three simultaneous venues. Pre-quarters/Quarters  were played on 23rd and Semis/Finals on 24th at Mitre Fields in Burlington. Infosys defeated another team from Infosys in first quarter finals, Spearheads won against Mansfield Cricket Club, Nashua Nukes defeated Philips team and UML Tigers defeated WCC in a very closely contested game.

While Infosys defeated Nashua Nukes in the first semis, UML with its superb all-round performance overcame Spearheads challenge to enter the finals. The keenly watched final between Infosys and UML was a highly competitive and every minute pronounced a skeptical winner.

The finals were followed by the prize distribution ceremony. Trophies, Certificates, Cricket Kits and Gifts worth more than $1,000 were given to the winners, runners and outstanding performers. Mr. Dayanand Allapur, Vice President of Patni Computers was the guest of honor. Allapur appreciated IDRF volunteers' commitment to the cause of helping the needy in India, and was all praise for participants and organizers for keeping our culture alive through such events.

Sajith of Infosys was awarded best batsman of the tournament while Sabeeh Ehsan from UML-Tigers was awarded the best bowler.  Ajay Mallaya of Infosys was awarded 'Man of the tournament' while Man of Finals went to Prahlad Vishwanathan of UML-Tigers. Outstanding performance awards were given to Ashish Khanna and Prashant Darisi of Nashua Nukes and Zahir Nagpuria, Narendran Ganapati of Spearheads team.

For the first time, a couple of women teams participated in the tournament leading to an amazingly close match. Team NWCC won against UML-Tigresses’ thanks to top performance from Savitha Shirath and Ledwin Iyer from NWCC. Top honors from UML-Tigresses’ team went to Supriya Lonkar and Rajni Aneja.

Proceeds from this event will benefit two of IDRF Boston chapter supported NGOs in India this year: NASA Foundation, Gujarat (National Sanitation & Environment Improvement) whose focus is to improve public hygiene by providing clean sanitation facilities in two schools. Part of funding will go towards immediate relief to victims of recent floods (June 2005) in Gujarat. Another project supported will be HOPE(Hungry & Oppressed’s Participation for Emancipation), Bhubaneshwar, Orissa to setup a "Rural Trade School" to provide training (Mechanic, Electrician, Plumber etc) to rural youth, women and weaker community to enable them to be self-reliant.

IDRF is an all-voluntary, tax-exempt, non-profit U.S. public charity that is operated without any overhead. It channels all contributions to Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) having impeccable track records of humanitarian service and managed by dedicated volunteers and thus applies 100 percent of all contributions towards the integral development of underprivileged and the needy. For more information, please visit us on web at http://www.idrf.org, contact us at 978-640-0530 or email idrfboston@yahoo.com

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