A 74 year old young man- Playing for TERI Corporate team
TERI- The Energy & Resource Institute is one of the leading corporate cricket team as well as one of the top organizers from Delhi NCR. They organize various tournaments throughout the season which goes from October to May. The tournaments organized by them have got a long history and prestige too. Mr. Vinay Pathak talked about it in brief. “At TERI, we have 2 cricket grounds. The grounds are located in campus near Gurgaon-Faridabad highway. We organize 6 to 7 tournaments for corporate cricket teams. To name few, we have D.G. Fadkar tournament which we are organizing since 1997. Also we have organized 21 editions of TERI cup. We will be organizing Madhav rao Scindia cup for 10th for 4th time this season. In May, we also organize summer cup. D.G. Fadkar, TERI cup and Tiger Pataudi tournaments are of 25 overs whereas others are of 20 overs.
”Mr. Pathak talked about one of the strong pillars of TERI. “Our director Dr R K Pachauri is a good cricketer himself and he is also a great sports enthusiasts. He always promotes sports for employees. His age is 74 now but still he plays cricket! Teams used to think that how will he will be able to survive? But he is fit and very competitive on field. He is the driving force for us. Initially, we started playing some practice matches and then slowly it has grown this big.Also one of the main factor for our success is the ground where we play matches. It has a lush green outfield and a terrific wicket. Even some Ranji trophy matches have been played here. Haryana Ranji team often comes here for the practice matches. It is a scenic venue and one gets refreshment after coming here.”
He talked about few good teams which he has seen. “I think to start with our team that isTERI is extremely good team. Apart from that Gail, NIIT, MaxLife, ICICI, HDFC bank, Royal Stag,Genpack and HCL are the top teams which are performing consistently in our tournaments. Wetake every precaution that no player from outside can play for any corporate team. Over theyears many teams have been participating in our tournaments. Tiger Pataudi tournament has24 teams and in other tournaments as many as 16 teams participate.”
There is one more thing which is interesting about TERI and that is their ground fees. Usuallyfor such well-developed grounds, the fees is between 50,000 to 1,00,000 INR. But at TERI theytake only 10,000 as ground fees. Due to which Haryana cricket team often prefer their premisesfor different matches. Various other cricketers like Ganguly, Bevan, and Attapatu have been attheir ground for playing cricket. Certainly the facilities at TERI are redoubtable and match the BCCI standards.
Captain of TERI cricket team, Mr. Sanjay Kumar told his memorable experience. “We wereplaying against Vodafone. Vodafone is one of the good teams in Delhi NCR. I don’t rememberthe exact score but that match went to the last over. And after we snatched victory, Icelebrated in a Ganguly style by taking my shirt off! Haha! That was incredible experienceindeed. Now we are looking forward for new season and to get some titles under our belt.” Asthey have gained the fame in Delhi NCR, they are now looking to reach to other cities of Indiatime and Tiger Pataudi memorial cricket tournamentand organize tournaments there.