RIYADH: The Riyadh Cricket Association (RCA) honored the outstanding players and teams of the recently concluded Castrol Inter-Embassy T20 Cup in a glittering ceremony at a local restaurant.
The tournament, the first of its kind in which a number of diplomats living in the capital city participated with their bats, balls and badges, was sponsored by Castrol Saudi Arabia, while the matches were organized by RCA.
Pakistan Embassy won the championship trophy, beating Sri Lankan Embassy in the finals. Castrol General Manager Ian Yarwood was the chief guest during the prize distribution ceremony. Other prominent guests included Sarfaraz Khanzada, charge d’ affaires at the Pakistan embassy; M. S. Kanyal, second secretary at the Indian embassy and Nimal R. Ranawaka, counsel at the Sri Lankan embassy.
Abdul Qadeer Mirza, RCA president, welcomed the teams and the guests, especially the diplomats, who managed to attend the event despite their busy schedules. Mirza said that “the RCA was celebrating this year its 30th anniversary and the main goal of RCA was to promote cricketing activities for all people irrespective of nationality.”
He said that the RCA had succeeded in its mission by organizing the inter-embassy cricket tournament, in which staff of the embassies showed their cricketing skills.
He thanked the RCA executive members, who worked very hard to organize this tournament. He also thanked the embassies for their participation and support, which have encouraged the RCA to hold a bigger inter-embassy tournament next year.
He particularly thanked Castrol Saudi Arabia for sponsoring the event and hoped that the partnership between RCA and Castrol Saudi Arabia will go along way to promote the game of cricket in Saudi Arabia.
Mansoor Ahmed, RCA vice-president, said the players who showed outstanding performance in the tournament were Hamza Imran, Rizwan Ahmed and captain Imran Khaled of Pakistan Embassy, Chamara and Rajapske of Sri Lankan Embassy and M. Ahad and Rajiv Shahare of Indian Embassy.
For his part, Yarwood, thanked RCA for organizing such a wonderful cricketing event in Riyadh. He promised that Castrol Saudi Arabia will continue to support RCA in future.
Special prizes were given to Hamza Imran (Best Batsman of the tournament), Imran Khaled (Best Bowler of the Tournament) and Rizwan Ahmed (Man of the Match in the finals).
