India – the colorful land is a diverse mix of culture, religion and thoughts. It is home to over a billion people speaking different languages, having diverse beliefs and ideologies. With the changing landscape, the perception of people towards their ways of life change dramatically.

 

Mark Twain once said “"India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. Our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only.". In spite of such diversity, there is one thing which binds Indians together – Cricket .The ball/bat game is followed religiously by the people of India and is synonym to the word Sports.

 

After a very successful AID Cricket Cup 2008, Association for India’s Development, AZ brought the brand new cricket format back to the Valley, to raise funds for sustainable development projects in India. The format couldn’t be more exciting with six overs and six a side teams. The tournament was held at McKemy grounds in Tempe and saw participation from many professional cricket league teams comprising of ASU Students and working professionals. In all a total of 24 teams competed for the prestigious cup and ultimately Cobras ended on top by defeating IB (Inglorious Basterds) by 15 runs in the final.

 

 

The tournament spanned for three weekend days starting on 19^th September and concluded on 26^th September. In the pre-quarters, teams were divided into eight groups with 3 in each competing for a berth in the quarter finals. The knock out phase started on the final day with Quarterfinals, semi- finals and ultimately the finals.

 

The finals - Cobras vs. IB was a closely fought contest and the game could have gone either way till Vishy, the stylish left handed bowler bowling the 4^th over in the last innings broke the opening partnership and conceded just two runs. With the required run rate climbing up to over 10 runs per over the Cobras finally were able to defeat IB and emerge as winners. Vishy, who also contributed 26 runs to the team’s total in the finals, was adjudged man of the match. Charles from Cobras and Joseph from IB were close contenders for the Best Bowler of the tournament, however Joseph finally won the award .The award for hitting most sixes went to Dennis Gandhi and best batsman to Senthil. Both cricketers played for Cobra’s.

 

The tournament was a great success and the funds raised will go towards projects currently being supported by AID Tempe. We are especially thankful to the group of girls for helping us raise additional funds by selling homemade lemonade and snacks at the grounds. AID Tempe since its inception in 2001 has always been actively involved in supporting projects in education, rural development, community empowerment etc. For more information on the projects please visit: http://tempe.aidindia.org/.

 

 

AID’s core committee would like to thank the participating teams, scorers and umpires for their support and encouragement in bringing this tournament to the valley. We expect to see you all next year for 2010 cup. Thanks to the event co-coordinators Vasanth and Hari and to the diligent AID volunteers without whom the event wouldn’t have been possible.

 

For AID Tempe,

Vikram Dadwal