BANGLALIVE CUP 2009 : THE CORPORATE CRICKET TOURNAMNET

The first three Saturdays and Sundays in the month of February seemed to be extremely colorful as well as eventful this year as the ‘Banglalive Cup 2009’ took place on 24th, 25th, 26th, 31st January and 1st, 7th, 8th February 2009.

Celcius Technologies Pvt. Ltd., a Chatterjee Group Company and SKIN Technologies Pvt. Ltd. have organized this tournament for the 4th consecutive year. The venue was as usual the lush green field of FC Cricket Ground of Salt Lake City. Total 12 teams took part in this 6-day, 6-a-side, 6-over Tournament, Banglalive Cup 2009. The teams were Air India, ITC, Imperial Honda, United India Insurance, Price Water House Coopers (PwC), IBM Grey, IBM Blue, Labvantage, TCG Software, Tech-Mahindra, Fi-Tek, BNKe Solutions, IKF Tigers, Celcius Technologies, and Kolkata Press Club.

The ever-increasing grandeur of Banglalive Cup manifested in the array of sponsors this year. Keeping the growing trend in mind, Celcius Technologies and SKIN Technologies, the twin organizers of Banglalive Cup were well prepared to manage this year’s tournament in much bigger scale. TCG Lifesciences, Fi-tek, SkyTech, Fortune Bangla and Lexus Motors were the Associate Sponsors of this year’s Banglalive Cup, while Hyatt, The Peerless Inn, The Astor, Sagarika, Keo Karpin, Mc Graw Hill, Hindustan Records, SIMOCO, Himalaya Opticals, Bhajohori Manna and Red Express were the Co-sponsors of this year’s Tournament. The Official Radio Partner of this event was BIG 92.7 FM.

Being one of the greatest professional cricket Tournaments of Kolkata, today Banglalive Cup can boast of its excellent organizational capability. Hence, this year also the tournament started in an exceptionally smooth mood as usual. It gathered momentum gradually as more and more league matches were being played. In the league matches each team had to play for 6 overs . There were bowling restrictions too. In the league matches, bowlers could bowl maximum 2 overs in a match of 6 overs. The semifinals and the final match were of 10 overs each. The bowling restriction per bowler was of 3 overs in case of the semifinals and the final match.

Since there were 15 teams participating in the tournament, total 3 groups were formed, each group containing 5 teams. Even the names of the Groups were innovative this time, viz. GROUP OF LIONS, GROUP OF BULLS and GROUP OF EAGLES. Each team had to play 4 group matches with their group partners as there were 5 teams in each and every group. The 3 semi finalists viz. Tech Mahindra, IBM Grey and IBM Blue were the three group champions. The tension was mounting for the selection of the 4th semi finalist team, which was to be selected on the basis of Net Run Rate. The strong contenders were TCG Software and the last year’s champion Price Waterhouse. In the earlier matches Air India showed their skills under the able leadership of Mr. Indu Bhushan Roy, but somehow lost their momentum later. ITC also exhibited their excellent skills of batting bowling and fielding in the earlier matches.

Ultimately the team that was selected as the 4th Semi Finalist on the basis of Net Run-Rate was IKF Tigers. In fact, IKF Tigers was the youngest team in this year’s Banglalive Cup. The team was full of young, energetic and enthusiastic band of players. The team members as well as team supporters were overwhelmed with joy with the breaking news of their entry to the semifinal of Banglalive Cup 2009 on the basis of Net Run Rate. Although the team was defeated in the Semifinal match against IBM Grey but their involvement in the Tournament and the spirit needs special mention.

Banglalive Cup 2009 saw the Ex-Bengal player Mr. Indu Bhushan Roy playing for Air India as an employee of that esteemed organization. Mr. Roy, popularly known as IB Roy scored 7 Centuries and 13 half-centuries in his First Class Cricket career from 1987/88 to 1993/94. During the Banglalive Cup 2009 tournament, he showed some glimpses of the form he was having in his earlier days. It was a brief journey down the memory lane. He played many excellent shots and displayed certain classic bowling skills, which undoubtedly elevated the level of this Tournament to a greater height. And for obvious reasons Mr. I. B. Roy was selected Man-of-the-Tournament.

After the completion of the entire league matches on 16th February, Tech-Mahindra, IKF Tigers, IBM Blue and IBM Grey went to the semifinals. On the 17th February, in the first semifinal, IKF Tigers scored just 37 runs against the devastating bowling attack by IBM Grey. IBM Grey, having such small target, seemed confident about their win in that match. But ultimately it was not an easy task for them. They managed to win the match by just 1 wicket in 4.5 overs. IBM Grey went to the final.

In the second semifinal, the battle was between Tech Mahindra and IBM Blue. Batting first, IBM Blue scored whopping 160 runs. Diwakar Jha, Suman Mallick and Dipanjan Mitra showed some brilliant shots in their innings. It is to be mentioned here that, Suman Mallick was the Man-of-the-Series prizewinner in the Banglalive Cup 2007. Facing such a gigantic total of 160 runs, Tech Mahindra was lacking confidence from the very beginning of their innings and ultimately managed a total of 23 by loosing all their wickets in 4.2 overs. Thus, IBM Blue was the second team to enter the Final of Banglalive Cup 2009.

The match for the 3rd and 4th position was between IKF Tigers and Tech Mahindra. This match was really an exciting one. Batting first, IKF Tigers scored 46 runs in 4.5 overs. Tech Mahindra was not at all consistent while facing the bowling attack of the IKF Tigers and were all out scoring just 45 runs. IKF Tigers won one of the most exciting matches of Banglalive Cup 2009 by just 1 run. They have secured the 3rd position in this Tournament, while Tech Mahindra was declared 4th in the Tournament.

Though the teams were from the same corporate house IBM, it was expected that, the final match between IBM Blue and IBM Grey would be an exciting one. Honestly speaking, it surpassed all expectations. All the spectators witnessed some fireworks from batting bowling and fielding of each team. With an excellent batting performance by Indan Ghosh (74 not out), IBM Grey started the match and scored 128 runs in 10 overs losing 4 wickets. It was a tough target to achieve but IBM Blue initially fought back in an excellent way by smashing the bowling attack of IBM Grey. But even with an excellent batting performance by Dipanjan Mitra (59 not out) they couldn’t manage to score the necessary runs. The final score of IBM Blue was 104 all out in 8.3 overs. IBM Grey came out in flying colors at the end of a really tough match by any standard. And IBM Grey became the champion of Banglalive Cup 2009 as the most deserving team. Indan Ghosh was declared the Man-of-the-Match for his stormy batting performance in the Final Match.

A 4-member team of umpires under the strict and able leadership of International umpire Mr. Subrata Banerjee was in charge of smooth running of the matches. The white ball with black side screen and orange wickets created an ideal atmosphere for corporate cricket. Beautifully decorated huge umbrellas erected outside the boundary lines all over the ground created a perfect ambience of light yet serious corporate tournament.