SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Oct 27: Former World Cup winning team member Kirti Azad will be seen in action in the first Master Cricket National Tournament (for players over 60 years of age) to be played at Keenan Stadium and Tata Motors Cricket Ground (both venues are in Jamshedpur) for Pankaj Memorial Cup from November 2 to 4.
Meanwhile, all four participant teams have announced their squad for this national event.
Giving this information, former east zone ace spinner and convener of the tournament Avinash Kumar said that the tournament is registered with Veteran Cricketers of India (VCI) for retired cricketers of the country (over 60 years).
Former Test stars, Rajesh Chouhan, Arun Lal, and Surinder Khanna are observers of the tournament.
The silver lining of the tournament is that besides former Ranji stars of the country, cricketer-turned-politician Kirti Azad (member of the 1983 World Cup winning team) is also playing in the tournament.
BCCI grade umpires of Jamshedpur would conduct the matches in the tournament.
The players list announced by all four teams is as follows-
Sixties GIANTS – Captain Naresh Shenoy (Mumbai), Dr Aadil Chagla vice-captain (Mumbai), Yashwant Duduskar, Sunil Joshi, Emmanuel Benjamin, Anant Narale, Avinash Benke, Shishir Bhope, Peter Smith, Vidyadhar Pednekar (wicket-keeper), S. Fernandes and Nitesh Gundecha (wicket-keeper)
Sixties STRANGERS – Captain Ramaseshan Neelakantan (Chennai), Padmanabhan S vice-captain (Mumbai), Padmanabhan, Md. Iqbal Siddiqui, Ratan Sharma, Dr Sunil Wagh (wicket-keeper), Ravindra Khadye, Sanjay Ranjan Sinha, Asit Sahay, Hemachandran Nair, Sam David, Dr Manoj Khanna and Dr Surinder Kr Bajaj.
Sixties ROYALS – Captain Rajsekhar Raman (Chennai), Rajgoapla Naidu vice-captain (Bangalore), Anil Dixit (wicket-keeper), Chandrasekhar, P K Raman, S R Jandhyala, Raghavan, Ravi Shankar, Subramanya Raju, R. Bambawale, Jayprakash B S and Udaya Kumar
Sixties HEROES – Captain Avinash Kumar (Jharkhand), Pradeep Godbole vice-captain (Mumbai), Kirti Azad, Devki Nandan Das (wicket-keeper), Sanjay Beri, Mario Fernandes, Subhash Chatterjee, Md. Mannan Siddiqui, Virendra Patel, Rajinder Bhoomla, Ranjan Kumar and Kamlendu Mishra.