Eventus-Taking cricket beyond the boundaries
An ex Ranji Trophy cricketer, with an intention of giving something back to cricket, started a firm called as Eventus. Founded in 2001, Eventus now has experience of organizing sports events for more than 13 years. Abhilash Chopra who was a former Ranji Trophy player has been the founder of Eventus. At Eventus tournaments for various sports like Badminton, Chess, Carrom, Athletics, Squash are organized. “I used to play for Railways in Ranji trophy. I played for the last time in a first class game back in 1993-94. After retiring from Railways, I did some research and then came into this field of sports recreation and organization,” said Abhilash.
Over the years, in this journey of organizing sports events, Eventus has reached significant number of milestones. In 2009 the tournament organized by them had 63 teams participating in it. It was a record which got special attention from Limca book. Next year the same tournament reached their apogee when total of 64 teams participated in it. “We have been organizing events for various corporate teams now. We organize sports events for companies like Airtel, Erricson, Accenture etc, “said Abhilash.
“These corporate companies organize various sports events mainly for providing fun & recreation for their employees. Basically it is an HR activity. At Eventus, we put the record about past tournaments on our website. It helps participating teams to know their opponent well. All they have to do is just visit our website”
Eventus has been the pioneer in applying creative ideas and make little modifications in the format of game. Talking about cricket they have introduced some interesting variations in it. “At the corporate cricket we were the first who introduced net run rate system as well as the bonus points system. We have one more unique concept and that is the ‘Super Sub’. In this a team nominates 12 players instead of 11. If they are bowling first then they can include 12th man in as a bowler and while batting he can be replaced by a batsman,” explained Abhilash.
Having had the experience of Ranji trophy, Abhilash brought the concept of classifying teams into various groups depending on their performance into corporate cricket. “We classify the teams in 3 divisions-Cup, Plate and Shiled.Due to this the equality is maintained in the game. Every team gets a fair chance to compete according o their capabilities. The participating teams should enjoy their day. If you put one of the strongest against one of the weakest team then it makes no sense,” explained Abhilash. Various teams have been participating in Eventus tournaments for a long time now. “Genpact has been associated with us since beginning. Teams of ICICI, Opto group, Indian Air Force have been performing quite consistently.
Eventus used to organize 25 overs matches initially for corporate tournaments. But now taking popularity of T20 into consideration they organize a T20 tournaments when it comes to cricket. Mr. Abhilash feels that the success of Eventus is due to their dedication, team work and their understanding of game. He said, “At Eventus we take care that no professional players are involved in any team. We don’t entertain any kind of indiscipline on field. The scorers and officials are fantastic at Eventus that’s the prime reason of our success”
After having so much experience under their belt, now they are planning to go beyond the boundaries of India. “We are planning to organize a tournament in USA. I have seen that people over there are keen about cricket but they don’t get a chance to show their talent. I am expecting a participation of 6 teams to whom we will provide clothing & Food.” Eventus had 16 teams participating in a tournament that took place in 2001 now they have 64 teams participating. The graph of their progress has always been going upwards. They have organized about 700-800 tournaments by now and their enthusiasm for sports is really fascinating as Mr. Abhilash says “Once a sportsman is always a sportsman”.