This year Nishtha cricket tournament could not be started as usual in the month of December because of construction work going on by the side of the ground and the Government pipeline was being re-laid cross one section of the ground. Once the pipe was laid and the new shop concrete roof was poured the weather was bad so we were unable to start our tournament until the beginning of January. By then the school was back in session – we can only play cricket when the children are on holiday so the number of matches possible was limited. Therefore only 12 local teams competed in our tournament this year.
The opening match was between the Yol Cantt. and Sidhbari cricket teams. They came from nearby villages of Khanyara, Dhari, Sidhbari and so on and rather further afield from Naddi and McLeod Ganj. Everybody enjoyed the matches and the villagers and monks from the nearby Tibetan monastery would spend their day off watching the teams play. The standard was very good and our carefully prepared pitch was much appreciated by the players. After the league matches, the final match was played on 26th January between Lower Yol team vs. Dharamshala Team. In this very interesting match the Dharamshala team clinched the Nishtha Cricket Trophy by 20 Runs. Nishtha Director Dr. Barbara distributed prizes along with our 2015 calender to the winning and runner up teams.
The only disappointment was that we had so few teams participate because we were so late starting. Next year we will make every effort to start the tournament by the first week of December. We also feel that there is quite a danger in playing with a hard ball on this ground which is right by the school and children’s playground. Therefore we are considering using a cosco ball which will also be safer and easier on the pitch. The great thing is that now every evening the pitch is in use by the local youth who are enthusiastically honing their cricket skill so they can perform well next year. The pitch will now be in continuous use right up until the monsoon comes in July.
