Wednesday 18 / June / 2025
Muscat: Indian School Muscat Alumni (ISMA) are organizing a fundraising cricket match on Sunday 10 am to 9 pm at the Amirat stadium.
In an exclusive interview, captains of two teams - Wasim Ali (Team Challengers) and Darwish Ellickal (Team Spartans) spoke to Evita Lewis from TFM (Radio channel of Times group.)
Here are edited excerpts from the interview.
Darwish, Congratulations on the third edition of this popular cricket tournament. What is your team called? Why do you think your team is going to win?
Darwish: Well, I am the captain of the team 'Spartans.' This is the first time, I'm actually captaining a cricket team. We did have a small auction. We selected a few players, and by the looks of it on paper, our team looks strong. So I think that could be one of the reasons why we are one of the favorites for the tournament.
It's actually a fundraising tournament that we are having. So, of course it is going to be played in a good spirit. We are expecting it to be an event full of a family gathering. It is going to be a fun tournament.
Darwish Ellickal, captain of Team Spartans.
Tell us about what you've been doing to prepare behind the scenes for this season.
Darwish: We had an IPL kind of an auction. There are four teams and each team has 15 players. Once the teams were selected, we've had a few net sessions in Amerat. So we could decide, who will go in the for batting or bowling. So that is what we've been exactly doing all these days.
Wow, that sounds very exciting. Wasim could you shed a little more light on the initiative for which you are raising funds?
Wasim: First of all, the initiative is something really great. We collect funds for the students of ISM who come from a poor family -- parents who are not able to pay their child’s fees. I think we have helped around 150 students. That's the last that we had collected of funds around 10 to 12,000 OMR. We also aim to reach that number this time.
Wasim Ali, captain of Team Challengers.
Is there something that is setting this year's tournament apart from the others there?
Darwish: Well, basically this is the first tournament being organised post-pandemic. People have actually been getting to come out and be together and spend time with families, too. With this Sunday being a holiday, we are expecting a large crowd coming into the Amerat cricket stadium. That is where the match is going to be held and we're going to have an amazing time. And what sets this basically apart from the previous tournament is that we've got more players this season compared to the previous years and that means more crowd. And we will be also having the school teachers and principals and the students as well as coming over to watch the game. This is something different from the last year.
I would just like to give you a small insight about the tournament as well. It's not like the standard cricket matches that we have yet. A batsman can only ball 8 to 10 balls. And then he's being played out. He goes out. So there's a chance for all the players to bat as well.
Yeah. So it's it's like everybody is involved in the game. So all the 11 playing members get a chance to bat and ball and it's almost pretty much a similar to what we had to the last edition. This year we've reduced the overs so that a lot of chances are given to the other players.
What time does the tournament start on Sunday. How long does it go on for?
Darwish: The tournament starts around 10:00 in the morning. The team plays three. But this that's basically it's a round robin. Most likely there'll be a finals. So I think it goes until about 8 or 9 pm.
It's an open day for families to come with their kids and it's going to be a lot of fun to be able to see a large amount of crowd. I'm sure it's going to be a spectacular Sunday indeed.
