Over the last Five weeks 16 teams had competed intensely during the league matches of the Emerging Teams Cup 2015. The league/knock-out stages witnessed a lot of closely fought matches that resulted in the best 4 teams; namely FRIDAY COURT, SAHARA MANJRONE, GOAN BOYS and DFC XTREME playing the semi-finals and fighting for a spot in the FINALS.
Like the league stages, both the semi-final games between FRIDAY COURT v/s SAHARA MANJRONE and GOAN BOYS v/s DFC XTREME were closely fought affairs that eventually resulted with FRIDAY COURT and DFC XTREME clinching the most coveted spot in the FINALS!
The stage was set for a very scintillating match, the GRAND FINALE that was played on Friday 10th April 2015 at 13:30 hours at Kheithan Grounds. Weather conditions were not at all conducive to playing cricket with sandstorms and wind blowing throughout the entire day. However, braving the rough weather, the 2 teams took to the grounds to play the FINAL match of the tournament. The match was officiated by experienced umpires from the Veterans Umpiring Panel, Kuwait.
FRIDAY COURT having won the toss elected to bowl first, a decision that eventually proved to be a match winner for them. Put into bat first DFC-XTREME lost both their openers Botheju and Shailu early in the game. They tried hard to put up a fighting score but fell victim to the scintillating bowling attack of FRIDAY COURT. Although, DFC-XTREME put up a defendable target of 98 runs, FRIDAY COURT with the experience and depth in their batting line-up managed to chase the score in less than 7 overs thus claiming the title of ËMERGING TEAM of KITCA
In-spite of the unfavourable weather conditions, the finals was witnessed by at least over a hundred people who gathered to watch the game thereby signifying its popularity in Kuwait.
Gracing the event and Chief Guests for the evening were Mr. Ramdas Nair - Head of Retails Sales – Bahrain Exchange Co. (BEC) the Title & Co. Sponsors of the tournament and Mr. Mahmoud Abdulla Patron-in-Chief of TACK MG7 Kuwait; both of whom are enthusiastic followers of the game.
After the finals, KITCA President Mr. Sharan Noronha and General Secretary Mr. Don D’Souza welcomed on stage both the Chief Guests and presented them with mementos on behalf of KITCA.
Speaking on stage Mr. Ramdas Nair confirmed his pleasure of being associated with KITCA due to the professional manner in which the month-long tournament was conducted. Mr. Nair stated that himself being an active cricketer in the past he and BEC are keen on promoting the game and are currently sponsoring around 10 teams in Kuwait who are playing under the BEC banner.
Mr. Mahmoud Abdulla also stated his pleasure in being associated with KITCA and confirming his love for the game pledged support to KITCA in their forthcoming tournaments.
The event concluded with the presentation ceremony to complement the hard work put in by the exceptional achievers of this tournament. The awards presented were: -
1. Winner’s Trophy to FRIDAY COURT
2. Runners-up Trophy to DFC-XTREME
3. Third Place Trophy to GOAN BOYS
4. Man of the Tournament to Vander Botheju from DFC-XTREME
5. Best Bowler of the Tournament to Imran Mulla from SAHARA MANJRONE
6. Best Batsman of the Tournament to Salman Faki from FARHAN CRICKET CLUB (FCC)
7. Man of the Final Match to Sajid from FRIDAY COURT
8. Fair Play Award to FRIENDS KUWAIT
The presentation ceremony was concluded with a vote of thanks from KITCA President, Mr. Sharan Noronha, to the Chief Guests and to all present for braving the weather conditions and coming to witness the Finals.
Mr. Noronha also thanked all the sponsors including BEC MoneyGram, City Group, Prosports, Jassim Transport & Stevedoring Co. W.L.L. (JTC), Country Club Kuwait, Lexus, Meera Printers and Deen Centre, Mangalore for their support in making this tournament a grand success.
Soon to follow…KITCA CORPORATE LEAGUE (KCL-2015)…
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