Ever heard of loser’s trophy? Dreams Sports Organizers have it’s for you
Winning or losing is part of a game we say. But there is vast difference between winning and losing. Everyone always wants to be on the former side than the latter. It doesn’t matter whether you lose by a single run or you lose by quite significant margin, a defeat is a defeat. How many of us always tend to imagine oneself at the place of a person who is receiving the winner’s trophy? Well almost all of us. Dream Sports Organizers have resolved this thing when they introduced a loser’s trophy. Does that mean that a team will get a trophy even after they lose? Certainly not. Mr. Harish from Dream Sports explains about the working and overall organization of Dream Sports.
“We started organizing cricket tournaments 17 years ago with 16 teams to begin with. Our organization and tournaments got good coverage in Times of India, Hindustan Times and several other newspapers. From then it started growing. Now more than 100 corporate teams play in tournaments organized by us. This is our 18th season we have started from 2nd October and it will go on till the May ending.”
“We organize 4 to 5 T20 tournaments and one 40 over tournament. Till few years ago, there was only one major tournament which was Times shield. Teams losing in 1st round had nothing to do after that. Compared to that T20 has become a popular format in corporate teams since the time it was started. It is short and people enjoy it. Almost half of the corporate players play only in T20s,” said Mr.Harish.
When asked about the interesting concept of loser’s trophy Mr.Harish said, ”That’s one of the good things invented by us in tournament organization according to me. Earlier we used to organize tournaments on league basis where teams used to play in round robin fashion. If there are 4 teams in a group and one team is already out of the tournament then that team was not interested in playing the final game, that is, say 3rd game of their group matches. It was a dead rubber game for them. Sometimes they didn’t even turn up for such matches. It used to affect the opponent team badly as they couldn’t get a chance to improve their net run rate. Hence we restructured the format of tournament. Now the top 2 teams qualify for the knock outs from each group for main trophy and the remaining teams from all groups play for a loser’s trophy. In this way everyone started enjoying their cricket.”
In past 17 years they have been the main pioneers in different changes in cricket tournament organizations. “We organize tournaments mainly at Azad Maidan, Oval and Cross maidan. These venues combine to form a heart of local cricket in Mumbai. If for any match umpire doesn’t turn up then we can quickly find the replacement. That’s the advantage of organizing tournaments at these venues from our point of view,” said Mr. Harish.
They have seen so many players in past 17 years playing in their tournaments. There have been few teams and players who are performing quite consistently over the years. “I think Reliance capital is one of the best teams. But they have got few professional players in their squad. Apart from that Airtel is also a good team. Airtel
guys win at least 1 to 2 titles every year as per my observations. There is a player called as Jitesh who is performing consistently. Last season he got two man of the series awards. Sandesh Amrute is another player from Reliance capital. I think these two are the strong pillars of the two teams mentioned earlier,” said Mr.Harish.
Harish himself was a batsman and he played for Business India firm. He is extremely passionate about cricket. “I always like to play cricket but I am not a professional. I am enjoying my job as an organizer. Because of such tournaments now teams have started recruiting professional players. We also organize tournaments a particular company for their inter department matches. There are lots of benefits which companies and employees get. The team building activity takes plays when everyone is at same level and there is no hierarchy. Many companies have got branches in Mumbai, Pune and Nashik. For such tournaments they come together at one place and get to know about each other. We just want to continue the tradition of last 17 years and we are looking forward for this brand new season,” said Mr.Harish.