FE Block held a “Mom Dad Cricket Premier League” recently and the fun began right from the auction. Four teams were given Rs 1 lakh in virtual currency to bid for players of their choice and the residents interested in playing had registered beforehand.

The four teams were Satyam Tigers owned by Satyam Roychowdhury of Techno India, Happy Avengers owned by Anup Agarwal of Isha Sari House, Raiders owned by Sailendra Singh of Prakash Group of Industries and Costa owned by Rohit Kedia of Costa Sports Systems. 

While there were some young singletons in the fray too, the tournament was mainly for parents. Each team had to choose a minimum of two women players and one of the women players had to be part of the playing XI. It so happened that the highest bid was made for a lady! Costa paid Rs 33,000 for Sunetra Mukherjee. 

We knew Sunetra has been a sportsman in her younger days and that her fitness level would be higher than that of the others. She would be more agile on the field than even some male players,” said Kedia, the team owner. 

The move paid off and on the field Sunetra scored 108 runs for Costa. “I work in the human resources department of Dominos and have always loved sports,” she said. “When I was doing my MBA from New Delhi I signed up for a mountaineering course at the National Institute of Mountaineering in Uttarakhand in 2006. All the professors were upset because I was losing out on classes but I stood first in class as well.”

 

The lowest bid in the auction was for 72-year-old colonel (retd) Debobrata Sthanapati. Raiders lapped him up with Rs 500. “No other team bid for him because of his age but we wanted him because of his experience,” said team owner, Singh. “And the risk paid off as in the very first over of our match he took a wicket. He was a very economic bowler too.”

The colonel said cricket was his passion. “I enjoy playing as well as watching cricket. It was lovely playing here,” said the man who has been resident of FE Block since 2004. 

Some fun games later, Happy Avengers won the tournament and Costa came runners-up. “The most important thing was participation and that's something we achieved. Next year we are looking at even more residents taking part,” said Agarwal, owner of the champion team. 

Roychowdhury, owner of Satyam Tigers, agreed. “I own another cricket team jointly with actor Prosenjit. Today’s event was on a smaller scale but we’ll surely come back strong in the next edition,” he said. 

The Man of the Tournament was Sanjay Mohata, the Best Fielder Arun Agarwal, the Best Woman Player Rituparna Chakraborty and the Best Woman Batsman Sarika Changoiwala.

“I am a 40-year-old mother of two. I played cricket and basketball in school,” smiled Rituparna. Sarika, who took two wickets and two catches, said she had been practising in the mornings before the tournament. Her husband, Rajiv Changoiwala, was declared best wicketkeeper and was part of the organising team of FE Block Residents’ Association too.

“We had been contemplating such a tournament for a while and I am delighted it was a success. We wanted everyone to participate, including women,” he said.

Do you want such a tournament to be held in your block too?
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