Migrant Community Cricket tournament in its Super League round

The Migrant Community Cricket Tournament 2018-19 has reached its round 2 or Super League Round with three teams on each side of Pool A and B competing to get into the semi-finals and grand finale.

The Migrant Community Cricket Cup is in its 22nd year with 12 total teams divided into Pool A and B. The T20 matches are being played at Auckland Domain every Sunday since November 4, 2018, until the finals on March 31, 2019.

The six teams in the pool A of the tournament are AIS UNITED, ATA Super Strikers, Deccan Acers, NZKK Gandaberunda, Pak Shaheen, and TUFXI.

Deccan Rising Stars, Desi Warriors, Medtech Strikers, Mighty Blues, NZ Telangana City Boyz, NZ Telugu Tigers are competing from Pool B.

This year, the tournament has been divided into three Rounds- Round 1 started on November 4 and finished on 23 December. Top three teams from each pool qualify for Round 2 into Super League and the bottom three go Plate League.

The matches of Round 2 started on January 6 and are set to end on February 23. AIS topped pool A with 21 points followed by Deccan Acers and NZKK Gandaberunda. Mighty Blue topped pool B with 20 points joined by Desi Warriors and NZ Telangana City Boyz.

This year the live scores of the matches in the tournament can be seen on an app specially developed for this tournament. People can see the scores on CricClub app that can be downloaded through App Store or Google Play.

As customary, the prizes for the winner, runners-up, third place will be given along with individual awards such as best batsman, bowler and player of the tournament, once the tournament ends.

“We are very excited with this tournament which is in its 22nd year and the participation has grown exponentially over the years. We have more spectators and community members who join us as supporters during the matches on Sundays,” Prashant Belwalker, member of the managing committee of the tournament told The Indian Weekender.

The Super League and Plate League matches are currently held at Auckland Domain, pitches 11-14, near The Grand Stand.

2017-18 years’ champions Probasee Bengali team are not participating in the tournament this year- but the number of teams for this year has still increased from nine to twelve.

Prashant Belwalkar manages the tournament, along with Suhas Shanbhogue, Shovik Nandi, as members of the managing committee.

The disciplinary committee that looks after fair-play of the tournament is constituted by including captains from all twelve teams.

The tournament is sponsored and supported by Relianz Forex who are the Gold Sponsors and have been associated with this tournament for the last seven years.

“Supporting this tournament gives us an opportunity to give back to the community and we are proud to be its sponsors,” Chairman of Relianz Group, Giridharan Giri told The Indian Weekender.

Expressing satisfaction on how the tournament had grown over the years Mr Belwalkar said, “This tournament has provided a platform to many talented sportsmen in our community to jump-start their career in cricket.”