IIW ALL LADIES SOFT BALL CRICKET CHAMPIONSHIP
-SAMAJ WEEKLY, UK
First time ever in London 12 Women Teams of non-professional players came together in a completely private non-funded Tournament managed only by the immense support of the Sponsors and The Historic Indian Gymkhana.
Chief Guest was Mayor of Hounslow Cllr Karen Smith while Guests of Honours were
Honorary Trustee Indian Gymkhana Mr Sutantar Soni, Coordination Attache from the High Commission of India in UK Ajay Thakur Sir, Cllr Shantanu Rajawat , Cllr Allan , Cllr Prabhakar Kaza.
Commentators – The master of all matches, Former Cricketer Mr Kamal Prabhakar, Shri Baljinder Singh Rathore, the one and only very important and influential Mr Ravi Sharma from Lyca Radio and Kapil. The Excitement was palpable.
This historic tournament was made possible by Honorary Trustee Mr Sutantar Soni from THE HISTORIC INDIAN GYMKHANA, GBS – GLOBAL BANKING SCHOOL, RCCRICKET. CO. UK, Arun Madhan Sermakasi, Ramesh Chelliah and Krishan
Gopal Garg.
Others who contributed as Umpires, Scorers and Volunteers were Vasantha Kumar N, Deepak Obhrai , Pratyush Ramesh, Gautam Sureshkumar, Rajesh, Senthil, Manoj, Sujin Sundar J K, Tuffale Yasir Mohamed, Asha Chelliah , Anita Anand Nayyar Christina Shiju George, Amit, Anay, Arun M, Mayank, Ashish.
Team 1 – HOUNSLOW HIGH FLYERS
1. Deepti Gawans (c) 2. Sadhna Pawar (vc) 3. Anshu Singh 4. Anuja Mali 5. Banita Raut 6. Kimaya Dalvi 7. Roopa Agnihotri 8. Snehalaxmi Natrajprabu 9. Sudha Balasubramanian 10. Vandana Daga 11. Nilam Vichare 12. Krupa Patil
Team 2 – BCC- OVERTON -PANTHERS
1. Astha Tyagi- Captain 2. Asha Naik – Vice captain 3. Grishma Santosh 4 Deepti Raj 5. Savitha Kommula 6. Soumya Hegde 7. Sasi Subramanyan 8. Sasi Mandava 9. Asha Rohit 10 Asha Ravindran 11. Mahalakshmi Peddinti
Team 3 – VITASTA
Captain – Cricket team 2024 (Sun Sep 8th)1. Rashmi Razdan2. Sunita Zadoo 3. Sonia kaul 4. Niroopma Koul 5. safron/Sapna 6. Dina ustauskaya 7. Safron Bakshi 8. Anca M 9. Surbhi dhar10. Dixha raina.
Team 4 – KENT EAGLES
1. Aradhana Kant – Captain 2. Namitha Prabhu – Vice Captain 3. Shweta Bakshi 4. Dipika Shetty 5. Spuritha Mokshagundam 6. Pinki kumari Vikram 7. Rita Akola 8. Chamini Senevirathna 9. Gunjan Bhardwaj
Team 5- LEGENDARY LONDON
1. Heenaba Zala 2. Krima Patel 3. Bhavika Mehta4. Salma Mohammed 5. Mandip Taggar 6. Kalpana Mishra 7. Sheryl Shwetha Mathus 8. Arti Chudasama 9. Saptati Datta (Sap) 10. Seema Khandelwal
Team 6- REIGNING CHAMPIONS
C Venkata Deepa VC Malathi Allan 1. Natasha Malhotra2. Nisha Malhotra 3. Nika Khaladkar 4. Rohini Tara Pachhipulusu 5. Sathya Senthilnathan 6. Sejal Upadhyay 7. Shashi Mahajan 8. Sneha V Sangoram 9. Tejal Obhrai 10. Varsha Tawari.
Team 7- SUPER SMASHERS
1. Shilpa Choudhary – C 2. Yogita Garg- VC 3. Syama Sundari4. Aditi Gupta5. Monika Gupta6. Parimala Narayanan7. Nisha Pillai 8. Vini Kalia 9. Arti Sharma10. Archana Sundar11. Shivani Singh
Team 8 – CRICKET EMPRESSES
Captain: 1. Nikita Gupta Vice-Captain 2. Rachna Mann 3. Amita Joshi 4. Malini Saravanan 5. Mini Rajan 6. Nancy K Chawla 7. Neha premgi 7. Nisha George 8. Rachna Mann 9. Ramya Siriguppi 10. Sapna Garg 11. Swathi Budagam 12. Veena Bharti
Team 9- CRICKET MAVERICKS
1. Archana Hadke 2. Bala Ramachandran 3. Bargavi Pattabiraman 4. Kalaivani Arul
(Captain) 5. Khushboo Shri 6. Kinshuki Verma7. Nayana Nanjundappa 8. Ramaa Malusare 9. Sirisha Bezawada (Vice-Captain) 10. Swati Sharma. 11. Vedha VetriselvanJersey
Team 10 -BLEED BLUE
1 Tejal Shah C 2 Priyanka Bhargava. Vc 3 Usha Parmar4 Swati Kirve 5 Junmoni Dutta 6 Divya Chari 7 Neha Bagga 8 Hetal Jansali 9 Shrividya 10 Deepa Vaswani
Team 11 – DARTFORD EAGLES
1. Selvanayaki Chenniappan / Deepa (captain)2. Sheeja Kuriakose 3. Saomya Gupta4. Shweta Sharma5. Gayatri Mulherkar (vice-captain)6. Shilpa Adur7. Jaswanthi N Kumar8. Kavitha Basu9. Shilpa Rajanna10. Ruchi Agya11. Supriya Shashank Kamble.
Team 12 BCC- SUTTON STRIKERS
Captain -Bhav Vice captain- Neethu 1. Bhavna Patel 2. Neethu Retnakumar 3. Rani Samyukhta T 4. Lavanya Aramadaka 5. Lakshmi Sravanthi Palufri 6. Sai Karthika Leelakrishnan 7. Divya kesavan 8. Chinmayi Chandrashekar 9 Swetha Kasam10. Raji Vardhireddy
RESULTS – IIW ALL LADIES CRICKET CHAMPIONSHIP FOR GBS TROPHY are as follows –
Champions – Hounslow High Flyers
Finalists – Legendary London
1st Runners up – Bleed Blue
2nd Runners Up – Cricket Empresses
3rd Runners up – Vitasta and Dartford Eagles
Rest all got participating medals and certificates
The day ended on a high note with a very exciting finals between Legendary London and Hounslow High Flyers. The tournament also witnessed a TIE MATCH between Vitasta and Dartford Eagles which led to a Super Over leading to the victory by Team Dartford Eagles.
All the matches were played with soft ball and except for the finals had six overs each. The finals had eight overs.
The tournament was successful in bringing so many ladies together, practicing every day, some even holding the bat for first time. The sole purpose was to break the monotony of life, to prioritise their well being and fitness. It helped most women to make new friends, showcase something they have never done with pride and a sense of achievement at whatever age. To feel younger with joy as holding that medal and certificate gave them as they were seen clicking and sharing those photographs as memories to be cherished. Yes, cricket is no longer only a Gentleman’s game but it is also a Gentlewoman’s game. IIW Soft ball Cricket Annual Tournament has become a habit for many as they have been playing these matches since 2018 since it started.
