INDIA AT WORLD ROTARY CRICKET FESTIVAL AT COLOMBO-AUGUST 2007

5TH WORLD ROTARY CRICKET FESTIVAL AT COLOMBO, SRI LANKA, AUG 2008.
HYDERABAD RI DIST 3150 ( INDIA ) PERSPECTIVE

Dear Rotary Friends,

The Rotary Cricket Festival at Srilanka has come to an end with a thrilling final game between two unbeaten Indian teams in the tournament, NIZAM WARRIORS, Hyderabad (RID 3150) VS BANGALORE BLUES ( from our neighbouring RID 3190).

The much younger and fitter Bangalore team just managed to win the game with a slender margin of 25 runs. The team from our Dist 3150 is the only team which bowled out the entire Bangalore team (the tournament favourites) within the stipulated 25 overs for 173 runs. After well placed to win the game at 77 for 1 in the first ten overs, the Nizam Warriors narrowly lost the game due to a middle order batting collapse going for the stiff target set by our neighbours.

The team from our RI 3150 fought like true "WARRIORS" throughout the tournament with great team spirit and I am proud to be leading and be part of such wonderful bunch of cricket loving Rotarians from our District.It was a truly a great platform created by ROTARY CRICKET FELLOWSHIP where the warmth, love and brotherhood amongst the Rotarians across the world was a SCENE TO BEHOLD.
The following cricketing Rotarians represented "Nizam Warriors",Hyderabad, RI Dist 3150.

Rtns.KRP Sarathy(Captain) / Narender Gowri/ Vaman Rao/ Shravan Malani/
Sreedhar Raju/Anil Goyal/ Manish Shrama/ Vishal Srivastav/ Sandeep Jhawar/
Ashwin Shetty/ P.George ( all from RC Sunrise)
Rtns.Agam Rao/ Karthick Godavarthy ( from RC Hyd North)
Rtns JS Patel/ Venu Gopal/ ( from RC Ameerpet)
Rtn.Mukesh Agarwal ( from RC Centennial) .
Rtn. Krishna Sagar Rao (PP RC Hyd North) who also accompanied the team, was a great source of inspiration with his wonderful PR work.

I place on record my sincere appreciation for the encouraging mails received by me from our DG Rtn.DR.Vijendra, PDG Rtn. Sam , PDG Rtn.Sam Movva of our neighbouring district 3020 and innumerable BEST WISHES mails received from all our well wishers from Rotary world. We are happy that the "NIZAM WARRIORS" have not let you down and performed creditably. We continue to look forward to your support and patronage in future.
With warm greetings and regards,

KRP SARATHY,
Chairman, IFCR 3150,
Dist Chair ( Recreational and Vocational Fellowships),
RI 3150,Hyderabad (AP)

Chennai Rotarians at IFCR Festival, COLOMBO

The 5th IFCR (International Fellowship of Cricketing Rotarians) World Festival was successfully held in Colombo, Sri Lanka. After months of debate about whether the festival would happen or not, it did happen and what a festival it was! Any doubts about whether the festival would maintain its enthusiasm and fellowship was erased with the first step onto Sri Lankan soil.

With the famous hospitality taking over with the bus ride to the hotel, till the last bus ride to the airport, the festival was a fantastic event that showcased everything that Rotary is all about.

The IFCR team from RI Dist. 3230, Chennai, India, had a good half of the team who were first timers to IFCR world festivals. As a veteran in the IFCR movement with attendance in all the five IFCR festivals, R. Ravi led the young team for fun and fellowship, and incidentally, cricket!

The team had old timers Kittu, Sridhar, Neel, Bala, Shibu and Ravi. Not to forget our famous lady umpire, Sumathi! The rest of the team were veteran Rotary players but their first outing to the International Festival. And were they bowled over! The spirit of IFCR combined with the amazing movement called Rotary, was a revelation to them, as it continues to be a revelation to all the veterans also. The fantastic fellowship, the wide variety of Rotarians from all over the world, the wonderful friendship we find in them, the culture we are exposed to, and the acceptance we find in the host country, is only to be experienced to be believed. That is IFCR in a word – an experience!

The Chennai team started their campaign against the Bangalore Blues at the Nondescript Cricket Club (NCC). Much as the name suggests, our game went quite the same way with the highest score in Rotary history probably being scored that day. Since we lost count after 250, the score we reckon probably ended up somewhere in the 300’s in 25 overs. We gave it our best shot and got somewhere close to half way.

Our next match was played at the Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC), the most coveted and known grounds in Colombo. A fantastic ground with an equally fantastic history, was a pleasure to play in and even to sit and watch the match.

Ravi hitting a six

The standard of our game lifted just by virtue of being at the famous venue and we gave the New Zealanders a good game. The delight of seeing our names on the scoreboard at the prestigious SSC, saw the whole team contributing and we ended the innings with the respectable score of 165 in 25 overs. We did eventually win the match but not without some good fight back from the Kiwis who got within 10 runs of our score.

The evening function/dinner was organised by the Sri Lankan Tourist Board at the beautiful Lavinia Beach Resort. Though our bus was the last to reach the venue, the setting simply took our breath away and it all but compensated for the ambience. What a fantastic idea and what entertainment! I don’t know about the other teams but the Chennai team had a blast that night what with Hindi songs being played as part of the entertainment!

We Indians turned up in whites as it was the eve of our Independence Day. Wearing white symbolizes a new start and the sense of purity with which we aim to lead our lives. It presented a great sight to those who had come and gave us a sense of being together, even though we were away from home. We sang our national anthem after the stroke of midnight and we were immensely pleased to see many of our international counterparts taking part in the celebrations with us!

The next day was a rest day but some of our team members played a friendly match against the Lanka Cavaliers, a team that has some ex-Sri Lanka cricketers.

The Indians scored 145 in 25 overs and they managed to make it in 22 overs with three wickets to go. They were obviously the better side and we were beaten soundly b ut not without a small fight! But we hope to continue the good cricket by inviting them to India at some later date.
Lanka Cavaliers

The third match was played at the Wesley Cricket ground against Sri Lanka. With the interesting pavilion with its railway carriage for the lunch tables, and the camaraderie among the players, it proved to be another enjoyable match for us. The Sri Lankans managed to hit 165 in 25 overs and the Chennai team had a few nail biting moments towards the end but eventually, we won and Shibu posted the winning runs for us!

The last match was splayed at the CCC ground, against the Australian Redbacks. Fresh after winning their maiden IFCR match against the GB & I team just the previous day, the Australian team looked to carry on their winning streak. We tried our level best to help them in their quest but there was only so much we could do! We even introduced a lady member of our team to take the field for a while! Ann Susan, a former university level cricket player added some glamour and fun to our game. Chennai had to chase 162 in 25 overs and we managed to get it in style with Susan at the crease!

The closing gala evening dinner was farewell time. A time to remember our friendships. A time to cement our relationships across time and countries. A time to recall the fun times in the tour and in the tours to come. A time for promises and a time for expectations. A time for goodbyes and yet a time for smiles.

Many thanks to Nalin and his fantastic team for organising a wonderful festival for all of us. Many thanks to all the Rotarians who did turn up for the amazing week of fun and fellowship. Congratulations to Neel, Kalyan, JK Mahendra and Ravi for their match winning performances.

See you all at the next Rotary IFCR World Festival in South Africa in 2010!

From the Deccan Herald

Bangaloreans at Rotary Cricket Festival at Colombo
M N Prasad

Nearly 400 cricket loving members of Rotary Clubs from seven nations, number descended on Colombo to share a week of camaraderie, friendship and International fellowship and to play cricket in an easy and friendly atmosphere August 12 and 18.

Rotarians and their families from England, South Africa, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Australia and New Zealand participated in a week long extravaganza on a common platform provided by the Rotarians of the host nation and the Sri Lankan Ministry of Tourism and Culture.

India was represented by a contingent of 145 members with as many as 68 were from Bangalore alone. Being residents of 'namma Bengaluru', known for friendliness, courteousness and hospitality, the guests from far lost no time in blending themselves with Bangaloreans.

Sixteen teams participated in a two session game of 25 overs each in five picturesque grounds for 6 days. While the motto was “winners all”, for statistical purpose the Bangalore team led by Rajgopal came out unbeaten in all their essays.

With pride and a deep sense of patriotism the Indians celebrated the 60 years of Independence. Dressed in colourful national costumes, celebrations began on the August 14 evening itself on the golden sandy beach of Colombo with patriotic songs renting the air amidst the international visitors who joined in the fervour which continued well past midnight.
The High Commissioner of India in Sri Lanka invited them to join the flag hoisting ceremony on the lawns of his official residence. There was much joy and pride in celebrating India’s Independence Day with some 800 plus visitors from India, who were in Colombo on business or pleasure, congregating on the lawns of the High commission.

This festival of cricket is held once in two years under the aegis of International Fellowship of Cricket loving Rotarians (IFCR) which started during 1992 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Since then five world festivals of cricket have been organised hosted by different countries including one in India during 1999 in Chennai.

The sixth festival will be hosted by South Africa in Durban during September 2009.

MN Prasad
(Rotary Club of Bangalore, IFCR representative for Karnataka)

IFCR 3150 HYDERABAD TEAM ON CRICKET FELLOWSHIP TOUR TO IFCR 3020 VIJAYAWADA

DEAR ALL,

The IFCR team of our DIST 3150 was invited by our neighbouring Rotarians ( Dist 3020) to their multi district sports meet to participate in a triangular cricket event ( as part of the meet ) organised between Dist 3020, Dist 3150 and Dist 3190 (from Bangalore) on 15th and 16th December 2007 at Indira Priyadarshini stadium,Vijayawada.

It was a wonderfully organised event,cricket games being the cynosure of all eyes.It was amazing to see the talent among the middle aged and senior Rotarians who set above-normal standards in the games contested.All the three games amongst the three districts were well contested with Dist 3190 form Bangalore, emerging as the Winners and Dist 3020 as Runners-Up.

Dist 3150 ( inspite of not in full strength) gave a very good fight to the eventual winners Dist 3190 from Bangalore losing by a slender margin of 2wkts in a game of low scores on the first day 15th Dec07.On the final day Dist 3150 put up a decent total of 175 in 25 overs, which Dist 3020 achieved without much sweat thanks to a wonderful batting display by all their front-line batsmen, in the bargain the veteran and exemplary sportsman Rtn.Sam Movva, the captain ( who was padded up and ready to bat) did not get the opportunity of hitting the winning runs.

RI DIST 3150 TEAM FROM HYDERABAD RI DIST 3020 TEAM FROM VIJAYAWADA

Rtn.Vaman(RI3150) and Sam (RI3020) at the toss. BOTH TEAMS LINED UP AFTER THE FINAL GAME

Hearty cogratulations to Rtn.Sam Movva and cricketing Rotarians of his ditrict for their very well deserved victory and the phenomenal improvement in their performance since Dist 3150 beat Dist 3020 in a game organised in July 2007, during the Rotary multi district membership development seminar at Vijayawada.

Well Sam, it is even-stevens now and we shall await the next clash between the teams at Hyderabad being planned during mid/end January 2008 !!!!!!!!!!!!! .

Humour apart, I am extremely happy ( being the IFCR Convenor of AP) that both Rotary districts of our AP District are performing exceedingly well with true Rotary sporting spirit displayed in their cricketing contests.

Our sincere thanks to DG Rtn..Sadanand ( of host Dist 3020) Rtn.Venkateshwara Rao ( President of RC Vijayawada EAST) and Rtn.Ravi, Chairman, Dist sports meet and their team of dedicated Rotarians for their wonderful hospitality which we enjoyed during our stay there.

May the bonding and fellowship spread thru medium of sports particularly thru cricket amongst the Rotarians continue to grow with no boundaries.

WITH BEST REGARDS AND HEARTY NEW YEAR GREETINGS,

YOURS IN SERVICE OF ROTARY,
KRP SARATHY,
CHAIRMAN IFCR 3150
DIST CHAIR ( RR & VF),
RI 3150,HYDERABAD