Hyderabad: The Old City’s Barkas Cricket Club is set all for the Barkas Gold Cup cricket tourney, which is scheduled to begin from Saturday. The tournament was launched in 1997 by the Barkas Cricket Club to create a friendly environment in the Old City and to develop the theme of unity in diversity. When Andhra Pradesh was not bifurcated, youth from neighboring states like Karnataka and Maharashtra also participated in the tournament. Due to various reasons, the tournament was not organised from 2003 after the 7th Barkas Gold Cup concluded.
Mr Habeeb Mohsin, president of Barkas Cricket Club, said a few key players left for Dubai and other Gulf countries for employment and the theme of the tournament was sidetracked with the involvement of politicians in 2003. “Last year, we re-launched the tournaments and are continuing with the same theme,” he said. Earlier, the number of participating teams was 32 but this time, the organisers have reduced the number of teams to 16.
“Teams from Hyderabad, and a few parts of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka will participate. We have not decided the date of the final match but we will announce it soon,” Mr. Mohsin said. The matches will be organised in Abbas stadium located in the premises of the CRPF battalion. Mr Ahmed bin Salam, a resident of the Old City, said: “During my childhood, this was a tournament the youth and children were crazy about. We used to reach the stadium early to watch matches and the celebrities who were chief guests. Now, the organisers are arranging live telecast on local TV channels.”
Mr Mohsin said local cable TV channel Nisha will telecast the tournament live while the Hyderabad Cricket Association would supervise matches. “Umpires, commentators and other technical staff are from the HCA. Local restaurants are arranging big screens for the telecast of the tournament,” he said. The cricket club is making arrangements of live streaming over Facebook and YouTube so that Hyderabadis in the Gulf don’t miss out.
