Cricketers in Metro Area Hit a Sixer for India
AID-Atlanta's tournament raises funds for grassroots development
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The Atlanta Chapter of the Association for India's Development (A.I.D), jointly with the Atlanta Cricket Club, conducted its annual cricket tournament, 'Cricket for India '03', on August 23rd and 24th. The event was a fund-raiser for the Atlanta Chapter of A.I.D., an organization that supports community-based grassroots development projects in India.
The Newton Park in Alpharetta was filled with 24 enthusiastic cricket teams from Atlanta and the surrounding areas, and the tournament picked up steam from the moment it got under way. All the games were filled with action and closely fought, and the spectators were treated to some great cricket. Loud cheers filled the park as the audience, comprising kids, parents, friends and family, shouted slogans in support of their favorite teams.
The tournament saw some memorable performances from the top finishers from last year, namely GaTech, Dunwoody, Manhattan and PurpleBulls. Having survived elimination on account of a better net run rate, Manhattan came back strongly to win their quarters and semis with relative ease. PurpleBulls, on the other hand, adopted a steady route to the finals. Inspired bowling by their pace quartet propelled the Bulls to the semis, where they clashed with Dunwoody Veterans. Batting first, Dunwoody notched a formidable 51. In reply, a dogged partnership between Ravishankar and Rakesh secured the game for PurpleBulls, who underlined their victory by scoring the winning runs with a six.
In the finals, Manhattan ran into rough weather early in their innings when Raghav broke through in his very first over. Troubles multiplied when Ravishankar bowled his heart out, claiming 5 wickets and ripping the Manhattan top-order apart. The Bulls's bowlers were ably supported with some stupendous fielding. The late middle order held out for Manhattan, giving some respectability to their score. But it was too late in the innings to cause any major concern for the Bulls. In the end, the Bulls won by a convincing margin.
As the dust settled late on Sunday afternoon some memorable performances of the past two days stood out. Vishwash Iyengar of Dunwoody bagged the best batsman prize, Saravanan of Manhattan took home the best bowler award, Sriram of PurpleBulls snatched the best fielder honor and Ravishankar, also of PurpleBulls, was adjudged the man-of-the-match for the finals.
Association for India's Development, founded in 1991, is a non-profit organization whose objective is to address grassroots issues that are impeding progress in India. The problems of poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, social inequalities and corruption reinforce one another. AID strives to solve these problems by supporting developmental projects that promote literacy, heath care, vocational training, empowerment of women and child welfare.
Over the past 12 years AID has grown to 40 chapters globally with 36 chapters in the USA. AID currently supports more than 100 projects in 15 Indian states. AID has four Jeevan Saathis (full time volunteers) working in India and many volunteers working full time over extended periods of time ranging from six months to over a year. The Atlanta chapter of AID was formed in 2001. All funds collected in this tournament will support several projects that AID-Atlanta is involved in currently, described in detail at http://www.aidindia.org/atlanta/projects.shtml.
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