Patna University students take part in the trials at Science College ground on Thursday for the upcoming cricket tournament to be held in Varanasi. Picture by Jai Prakash

Patna, Dec. 15: This winter, Patna University (PU) students would be able to showcase their cricket skills after four years. They would wield their willow to prove their might on 22 yards in the east zone inter-university cricket tournament, scheduled to be held at Varanasi from December 26.

Around 26 teams, mainly from eastern states, including Bihar, Jharkhand, Bengal, Assam, Orissa and universities under eastern Uttar Pradesh, will take part in the tournament to be hosted by Banaras Hindu University.

The varsity administration started trials from December 12. Twenty-five players were short-listed today. Sixteen among them would make it to the final team. The training camp would start from Friday at Patna Science College.

The trials were conducted at Patna College and Patna Science College grounds. Students of Patna College, Science College, BN College, Vanijya Mahavidyalay and postgraduate departments demonstrated their cricketing skills to represent their varsity.

The selected players would now be trained under Raju Walsh and Pawan Kumar, both former Ranji players. Ajay Narayan, a former Ranji player selected the players from the trials.

On December 13, the trials were disrupted as Ashish Sinha, a Patna Science College student and son of BJP MLA from Kumhrar Assembly constituency, Arun Kumar Sinha, was allegedly roughed up by boarders of Iqbal Hostel. Sinha, whose condition is said to be stable, is also a Ranji player.

In a bid to encourage students’ participation in extra-curricular activities, PU revived its sports and cultural committee after six years with appointments of new presidents and members. The participation in the cricket tourney reflects the varsity’s intent.

Mahesh Pathak, a student of Patna Science College, said: “It is good that the university is sending its team to the inter-university sports meet after almost four years. The university had sent its team for participating in an east zone sports meet at Jadavpur University, Calcutta, in 2008. That was the last time PU students got an opportunity to showcase their sporting skills on big platform. ”

Kalyani Singh, a teacher of Patna Training College under whom the university team will visit BHU, said: “Apart from sending the team for the cricket meet, the university is planning to participate in competitions involving other disciplines of sports.”

The varsity would be sending its team to the east zone table tennis tournament to be held at Visva Bharati University (Bengal), scheduled to start from January 14. PU is also mulling to send a team to the inter-university volleyball tourney at MG Chitrakoot University, Satna (MP), scheduled to begin from February 10.

A senior teacher of the university, on condition of anonymity, said: “As the sports board was defunct for many years, PU was not sending its teams to any sporting event.”