As the demonetization has caused inconvenience to common masses in the recent past, the organizers of a local tournament in Maharashtra had come up with a novel idea to make the gentleman’s game interesting by introducing the goat and roosters’ in spite of cash prizes to recognize performances in the tournament when the cash crunch brought country to a standstill.
In the childhood days, we had witnessed the cricket tournaments organised were over the congealed maidans which had further seen winners’ prize as plastic items and that further included the chocolates for the tournament winners to delight the winners.
In the Palghar district of Jawhar Taluka, the story appeared to have witnessed the winning team Darya Sagar Mitra Mandal getting a goat in a cricket match as roosters went to runners-up followed by boiled eggs to those who had smashed sixes and boundaries.
“The prize was unique. We are now waiting to feast on it,” Mandal skipper Manoj Prabhu was quoted as saying by TOI.
Adding much in the interest to lure fans, the organisers had also awarded ‘boiled eggs’ to those who caught the ball in the stands.
Coach Umesh Tamore was the man behind the idea who further started it would be a better option to start with. Tamore also came up with the idea to collect INR 1,000 from all 14 teams before stating it was all planned to avoid fights which escalated tensions among the teams.
“In the past we have experienced allegations of rigging and fights over prize money. This time, all willingly shared their prizes,” Tamore was quoted as saying by TOI.
Basking the glory, tournament committee also contributed 1,000 each to make the tournament a huge success.
“Every year cricket matches are held at the Rajiv Gandhi stadium in Jawhar with prize money of Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh,” Tamore told TOI.
Like the costliest car is kept beyond the padded-up boundaries in the cash-rich leagues, a healthy goat was the highlight of the tournament.
Royal Teacher XI were declared as runners-up as their captain Anil Kangne expressed satisfaction over the results before being awarded five roosters.
“They are not a bad deal,” expressed Kangne.
On the other side, the President of Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) Shakuntala Majumdar expressed there is no harm in gifting animal.
“Ethically and morally we are against gifting animals as there is no way of knowing how they would be treated and where they have been procured from,” Majumdar concluded.