Kuwait, 25 May 2013: The 16th children’s cricket event “DNV CRYcket 2013” organized by Friends of CRY Club – Kuwait (FOCC-Kuwait) was held on April 12th, where Cricket Coaching Club (CCC) won both the trophies (U-14 & U-12).
“CRYcket” is an annual softball cricket tournament, for children under 14, played in 7-over match format, and completed in a single day. The tournament is open to all children, who may organize themselves in teams with participants from any school, nationality or locality.
This year’s new venue at “Fahaheel Sports Club” wore a festive look on the day, as in the tournaments over the years, where the children and adults sported colorful team dresses and bright clothes. Besides it was heartening to see the enthusiasm of children and parents alike, despite initial hiccups in getting the venue functioning up to the desired standard. Everyone displayed spirit of friendship, competition and above all true sportsmanship. Although the tournament had to be pushed into April, for technical
reasons, thankfully the weather was really good throughout the day.
In all, more than 310 children participated this year, consisting of 21 teams - eleven teams in the Under-14 category and ten teams in the Under-12 category – all vying for the glittering winner’s “DNV CRYcket 2013” trophy in their respective age group. M/s
Det Norske Veritas (DNV) – Kuwait Branch, sponsored the event. Wataniya Telecom were the co-sponsors of the event and 5 special prizes. The event was also sponsored by Payal Jewellers, Raja Company, Career Hunters, Bank Muscat, Kapico, Royal Kwality Sweets and Snacks, Mr. Malek Al-Ajeel & Dr. Hind Al-Bahar, Kuwait Cricket and Well wishers. The event would not have seen the light of the day without the support of Kuwait Cricket Association who provided the Umpires. The scores were kept by experts in this field, and FOCC duly wish to acknowledge the persistent contribution of Cry Buddies Keerthini, Zainab, Mohammed, Ali Raza, Aditya, Kynara, Amina, Qaisarali and Enaam (children who devoted their time for the event) as well as friends on the spot.
The festivities at the grounds included the KIDS corner offering great amusement through some exciting games. A drawing competition as well as an essay competition were held for children in various age categories in which they enthusiastically
participated. Winners of the Drawing Competition were Sanjana Rajkumar (Age Under 6 group), Vidhyavathi (Age group 7–10), Zainab Solanki (Age group 14-16) and Selvi Velavan (Age group 16 & above). Winners of the Essay Competition were Adnan (Age group - 11 years to 13 years), Apoorva Rao (Age group - 14 years to 16 years) and Vidhya Anand (Age group 16 & above). The usual Buy for CRY stall, where articles donated by good Samaritans through FOCC’s efforts could be picked up at unbelievable prices had variety of articles on display. The Raffle draw was again hugely successful with 15 fabulous prizes for the grabbing.
The participating teams in the “DNV CRYcket 2013” tournament were: Under-14 Category: Dynamic Sixers, Eleven Golds, Salwa Sandstorm, Young Strikers, Carmel Supers, Cricket Coaching Club (CCC), Gladiators, NCC’s Pace-XI, Riggae Cricket Coaching (RCC), DPS Spartans and CETA XI; whereas Under-12 Category had DPS Red Titans, NCC’s Pace-XI Juniors A , Riggae Cricket Coaching Hamsters, Cricket Coaching Club, Gladiators, NCC’s Pace-XI Juniors B, DPS Blue Warriors, Riggae Cricket Coaching Juniors, Al Bader Super Tots XI and Desert Stars. After the day long, tough, intense & quality cricket, the Cricket Coaching Club (CCC) emerged as winners and bagged the DNV CRYcket trophies in both the Under-14 & the Under-12 categories.
The runner-up trophy was taken by Eleven Golds in the U-14 category and the Wataniya Best Player trophy was awarded to Abhishai Alan Jacob of Eleven Golds team. In the U-12 category, the runner-up trophy went to DPS Red Titans and the Wataniya Best Player award was bagged by Chinmaya Kulkarni of DPS Red Titans team.
The Wataniya Youngest Player of the tournament trophy went to Kurian Thomas Mattom from CETA-XI. Country Manager for DNV, Mr. Gireesh Sriraman graced the occasion as Chief Guest. He congratulated all the participants and presented the winners and the runner-up team captains with the trophies to a thunderous applause from all. Medals and certificates from CRY, India were also presented to all 310 participants.
A colourful Souvenir commemorating the 15 glorious years of FOCC’s existence was also released which included a motivating message from Susan Varghese, Head of Global Operations-CRY, a brief on the FOCC supported project “Manav Ashrita Sansthan (MAS)” in India, insights into FOCC’s activities as well as names of all the participants. The drive for "Associate Membership" which was introduced in 2009, continued this year as well, where anyone from the society can feel attached to the FOCC & CRY mission.
It was exciting all the way and everything done at the event was for a noble cause – to help the underprivileged children in India. Those interested in joining hands with FOCC may please visit www.focckwt.org.