Cricket brings hope to India flood victims

Cricket teams from across the Tristate area got together last week for a tournament, in hopes to raise money for the flood victims in West Bengal and Orissa. The cause brought eight cricket teams and over 100 spectators to the Truman Drive Cricket Ground in Piscataway. The tournament was organized by a Bengali non-profit group Shreeshti.

Excessive rains with relentless weather has lead to severe floods in Bengal and Orissa. Thousands of people in the rural areas have lost their homes and are now facing severe hardships. The money raised at the contest would go to charity for these people.

The tournament was a great success with short six over matches per inning. But rain did not leave New Jersey either that day and the second semi final and the final were washed out. These matches will be played on Aug 2 at the Kilmer Road ground.

Aptly titled Shreeshti Cup, the contest started with Sreeshti team playing Cosmopolitan. It was a shaky start for Sreeshti with only 27 runs in 6 overs. However, the hosts showed their prowess in all departments and contained Cosmopolitan to 21 in 6 overs to reach the semi final.

The other six teams also showed their skills on the ground and one local team Invincible cleared the first semi final to reach the final. The second semi final was between Sreeshti and Bombay Boys will be completed on Aug 2 to determine the second finalist.

The competition was sponsored by NIIT with Gutenberg Communication as grand sponsor. Apple, Godiva, Costco and Starbucks supported the tournament by offering iTunes gift cards, cases of water and Starbucks Coffee Gift cards respectively. Every team paid a $50 registration fee.

Aninda Bose, who helped organize the event and is also part of the Sreeshti cricket team, that the group decided to hold a cricket tournament to raise funds for the flood victims, because it also helped them generate awareness about the game of cricket.

"Shreeshti already has a Cricket team and we have been playing league matches. We knew the other teams from these matches and all of us were interested in doing something about the flood situation in India. So we decided to hold this tournament," said Shreeshti's Subhasis Sarkar.

A sum of $500 was raised at the competition and would be handed over to Bharat Sevasram Sangha, a charitable organization, which is working extensively in that part of India.