Ranji stars for Prabodhan Goregaon Twenty20 cricket tourney

Mumbai, Feb 4 (UNI) A host of current and past Ranji cricketers will turn out for their respective clubs in the Prabodhan Goregaon Twenty 20 Cricket Tournament, featuring the top eight teams from the metropolis, from February 6 to 9.

Commrade Shield winners National Cricket Club are expected to field Wasim Jaffar, Nilesh Kulkarni and Rajesh Pawar, while Shivaji Park Gymkhana will be represented by Ramesh Powar, Amit Pagnis and Sushant Manjrekar. Cricket Club of India will have Vineet Indulkar, Sahil Kukreja, Vinayak Samant, Wilkin Mota and Himanshu Waingankar in their ranks. D Y Patil Club will be led by Abey Kurivilla and supported by the dashing opener from Goa Swapnil Asnodkar and Sandip Dahad.

Usman Malvi, Vinod Raghavan and Manoj Joglekar are the prominent names listed with Parkophene Club. Bhavin Thakkar, Pushkaraj Jadhav and Santosh Shinde will be doing duty for New Hind and Police Gymkhana respectively, it was announced at a press conference here today by Dr Manohar Adwankar, President of Prabodhan Goregaon.

Brainchild of Shiv Sena leader and MLA Subhash Desai, the tournament carries a top prize of Rs one lakh and a trophy. The runners-up will get Rs 50,000 and a trophy. The player of the tournament will be awarded a motor bike, the organisers further stated at the conference.

The tournament to be played on a knock out basis gets underway on February 6 with National CC taking on CCI. The semi finals will be played on February 8 and the finals on February 9 at the Prabodhan Kreeda Bhavan, the organisers announced.

Besides the top stars cricket lovers from the suburbs will able to watch youngsters like Abhishek Nair (SPG), Omkar Khanvilkar (Parkophene), Sushant Khaire (CCI), Nilesh Patwardhan, Dhaval Kulkarni (New Hind) and a few other prominent upcoming players.

The tournament has been officially recognised by Mumbai Cricket Association and is the first of its kind in the suburbs.

Dr Adwankar stated ''We hope that the tournament is a success this year which should encourage us to organize it on a bigger scale in the coming years.'' Also present at the media briefing were MCA Vice President Ravi Sawant and MCA tournament secretary Avinash Sule.

Schedule: February 6: 0930 hours National CC V/S CCI; 1330 hours Pantaloon V/S Mumbai Police.

February 7: 0930 hours New Hind V/S Shivaji Park; 1330 hours D Y Patil V/S Parkophene February 8: 0930 hours First semifinal; 1330 hours Second semifinal; February 9: 1300 hrs: Final.

UNI GS RN RKM KP2033