Mukesh Sharma
Kalimpong,9th Feb

Thanks to television, the game of cricket has become a popular winter sport in the hills.

And local enterprise has ensured that Kalimpong plays host to the biggest cricket tournament in the region.

The 17th edition of the Piranhas Cup concluded at the Dr Graham's Homes ground here today. Organised by Piranhas Club, the tournament drew 15 teams from the Darjeeling hills, Sikkim and Nepal, who vied
for the honours over the last one month. BMC 11 emerged champions by beating Piranhas XI, Kalimpong, in the finals today. The BMC team won by 16 runs .

The winning team batting first made 181 runs in 30 overs by losing all wickets. The runners up team made 165 runs aal out in 30 overs

The winning team received a trophy amounting more than a lakh of Rupees and cash prize of Rs 20,000/-. While the runners up team received Rs 10,000/- cash prize and Trophy. Navin Pradhan of Pirahnas was declared Man of the Match. Likewise, Pema Lama of  Pirahnas team was adjudged Man of the Series
BMC Rony Mitra and Yowan Eric received best bolwer and best batsmen award.


GTA Deputy Chief cum Sports Department head, Col Ramesh Allay was the chief guest of the day. GTA Sabhasad Nima Tamang, Dr.R.B.Bhujel, Captain Prakash Mani Pradhan and other were also present during the occasion.

"Barring one year, we have been organising the Piranhas Cup regularly since 1991 till 2007 but the second phase of agiatation stop the tournament which again started from last year . There was a time when Bengal all-rounder and former India player Laxmi Ratan Shukla set the hills ablaze with his batting and bowling. "Besides Shukla, cricketers who played in IPL team of KKR and two of the national player from
Nepal T20 team have also played in this Piranhas Cup," said Bijay Pradhan , coordinator of the tournament's organising committee.

The tournament is played with white balls and players wear coloured clothing, pradhan added.

If one of the many talented youngsters from the hills were to make it real big internationally, the hills should witness a cricketing revolution," added pradhan