February 20, 2011
Amritapuri Campus
 

The tradition of playing sports for charity at Amritapuri continues.
 

After the football tournament last semester, wherein nominal registration fees for teams raised a handsome sum that was later donated to an orphanage, this semester a cricket tournament kept the same tradition alive on campus.
 

Students from all schools and programs at the Amritapuri campus organized themselves into teams of eight. Crick 8 saw matches among 62 teams that registered.
 

The matches were played after the end of the school day at 4:30 pm. A maximum of ten overs helped complete each match before sunset.
 

“This mini format of cricket was introduced in our campus last year,” stated the organizers. “And it has become very popular since then.”
 

The popularity of the tournament was evident from the huge gathering that turned out to watch each successive match. After the prelims, the pre-quarter and the quarter finals, the semi-finals and the finals especially evinced a lot of interest.
 

In the finals, the team, Beaters took on Dinkana Kings, the runners-up from the previous year.
 

Winning the toss, Dinkana Kings chose to bowl first. The Beaters set a challenging target of 165 runs for 4 within the limited 10 overs. In response, the Kings were only able to make 94 runs, all out. The Beaters claimed all eight wickets of their opponents.
 

A decisive victory for the Beaters was greeted by all viewers. Skipper Sreeraj R. shared, “We are speechless. We simply played our game; all our eight players did their best!”
 

“The cricket rounds were marvelous,” stated an enthusiastic spectator. “There seemed to be a festival of cricket on our campus. A nice way to welcome World Cup ’11.”
 

Meanwhile, the Rs. 50 paid as registration fees by each of the 62 competing teams totaled a substantial sum that was donated to Vivekananda Cultural Society’s Balasramam Child Orphanage.
 

This amount was presented to the children, when on 26th January, a thirty-member group of students and staff members from the Amritapuri campus visited the orphanage.
 

Located in Aaranmula, Balasramam began in the year 2000 with just eight children from Sabarimala. Now it serves a total of 56 children, enrolled in classes from nursery to plus two. Some receive the highest grades in the state-level examinations.
 

“We spent almost 12 hours with the children,” shared Damu Das, a third-year student of integrated MSc. “The children were awesome … they showcased their talents through singing, dancing and playing musical instruments … our 12 hours were so precious … unforgettable!”