A new non-profit sports organization, G-K Indian Sports Club Riyadh, will host its Tennis Ball Cricket Tournament to open here tomorrow.
“The tournament dubbed I. S. C. Mash Winter Cup 2012 follows the same format as adopted by different cricket leagues and different cricket playing nations including India,” Dr. Ghayas Ahmed, chairman of G-K Indian Sports Club, said here yesterday.
Ahmed said that the tournament will be played in Malaz ground in Riyadh. Ahmed considers the Malaz ground facility as “ideal” for tennis ball cricket and believes the “central location” of the ground will certainly generate more local interest. This will be a nine-week cricket tournament in which players of different nationalities have been included in the teams as per the mandate of the new club, whose aim is to create a vibrant sporting culture in Riyadh.
He pointed out that the tournament will be played with tennis ball with 16 overs a side game. There are a number of prizes on offer with an aim to encourage the new talents, said the club’s chief, adding that a new prize for “fair play and disciplined sportsmanship” will be instituted by the club during the session.
On the theme of the Riyadh tournament, Mohammed Kaleem, club’s general secretary, said that the tournament is being organized with the three-word slogan “Health Through Sports.”
Speaking about the new club, Kaleem said that the G-K Indian Sports Club was set up last year to identify new sportsmen and athletes in the Kingdom. “Our aim is simple — to provide sports activities for all ages and abilities,” said Kaleem. He said that the club has exciting plans in the pipelines to expand and grow. “Here at the G-K Indian Sports Club, we are passionate about sports,” said Kaleem, adding that the aim of the club is to create new teams in a variety of sports for juniors and adults with a sense of belonging and team unity.
The club is not only for Indian expatriates, rather it’s doors are open for all nationalities and for persons of all age groups,” he added. He pointed out that the club will promote cricket in Saudi Arabia, where this sports is growing in popularity. To this end, he noted that the Kingdom was admitted to the International Cricket Council as an affiliate member in 2003. Saudi Cricket Center is the official governing body of cricket in the Kingdom.
G-K Indian Sports Club’s tennis ball cricket tilt starts tomorrow
