KalingaTimes Correspondent
Cuttack (Orissa), April 13: When the India-South Africa cricket series is at its pick and the educational institutions are closed for summer vacation, the schoolchildren of the city are now enjoying a fortnight long cricket carnival. The fifth PVR Murthy cricket tournament for school children is at its best at the Engineering School ground here.

Organised by the Union Sporting Club — a leading cricketing club of the city — the tournament, only of its kind in the state for school children was inaugurated last week by state tourism minister Devi Mishra. At least 16 teams are playing in this tournament, which is of 15 overs each. The cricket tournament is drawing heavy crowd everyday as the schools are now closed after annual examinations.

The secretary of the organising club Pradeep Chouhan said that all the teams are from the schools located in the city and the matches are played between 7 am to 11 am everyday. He said at least two players from each participating teams would be provided with sports scholarship by the organizing club for one year.

“Entire school dues including the tuition fees of the selected players would be borne by the club. The man of the match of each day's play is being awarded with a Titan wrist watch,” Chouhan informed.

The most promising player of the tournament and two others for their contribution to the game would be awarded Rs 5000 and felicitated by the club, Chouhan, who is also the treasurer of Orissa Cricket Association said. “The Club would be spending around Rs eight lakhs for this tournament,” he informed.

After the tournament is over, about a dozen players would be selected to undergo training camps on turf wicket with bowling machine. The training camp would be conducted under the watchful eyes of a former Test player of the country, said president of the Club Nandkishore Tiberwal.

Services of former Test players like B S Sandhu, Madan Lal and Arun

Lal were utilised on earlier occasions to coach the school kids at the training camp by the club.

“We are also planning to rope in some of the famous former Test players — at least a batsman and a bowler, to give training to our boys this year,” Tiberwal disclosed.

Such tournaments at school level would go a long way to identify the young talents and hone their caliber in future, said a school physical education teacher.

“The tournament should be open to all schools of the state so that we can get a chance to pick up better talents from other parts of the state,” he added.