Bay Area Telugu Association (BATA) in association with Western Union organized the 8th Annual BATA Cup Cricket Tournament on August 6th and 7th 2011. Bay Area Telugu Association (BATA) is a non-profit organization devoted to the awareness and promotion of Telugu culture in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area. Formed in 1971, is one of the biggest Indo-American organizations in San Francisco Bay Area and is one of the oldest Telugu Associations in North America and is celebrating its 40th Anniversary this year.

BATA donated the proceeds from this event to Sankara Eye Foundation (SEF). BATA is a recognized Partner in Service for SEF. The event was sponsored by Western Union. The women tournament was sponsored by Shree Jewelers & You Smile Dental. Swathi Tiffin’s catered sumptuous food at the grounds on both days.

“On behalf of Western Union, I congratulate Spartans (men’s team) and Firebirds Reds (women’s team), the winning teams of the BATA Cup 2011,” said Nidhi Gupta, Senior Manager, Marketing at Western Union. “We appreciate the organizers inviting Western Union’s participation in the BATA Cup and the support this event is providing such a worthy cause as the Sankara Eye Foundation. This opportunity to be involved helps support our love for cricket, similar to how Western Union services support Indians in the U.S. in sending money back to loved ones back home,” concluded Ms. Gupta. As in the past, there was a huge response to the tournament this year as well. There were 42 men teams, 4 women teams and 55 games were played in total in the 2 days.

With 6-overs-6-aside format, the games were very close and the audience witnessed a lot of nail biter games. The tournament started at 8AM and went all the way through 7PM on both the days. On day1 games were played in 5 grounds, 3 in Fremont and 2 in Milpitas and on day2, games were played in Milpitas grounds. The enthusiastic spectators (consisting of spouses, children, family & friends) provided a lot of support by cheering their favorite teams. The players responded equally by treating the crowd to a flurry of 4’s and 6’s as well as some excellent bowling & fielding. The women teams were very sportive and were cheered by huge spectator crowds. Overall, the tournament was conducted in a very professional and organized manner to the audience & players delight.

The following are the results from the tournament:

Winners (Men): Spartans

Runners (Men): Challengers

MVP of the tournament (Men): Imran Khan (Spartans)

MVP of the finals (Men): Chirag J (Spartans)

Max 6s (Men): Jayesh (Challengers)

Best Innings of the tournament: Parshuram Kulkarni (Nemesix)

Winners (Women): Firebirds Reds

Runners (Women): Green Chillies

MVP: Neha S (Firebirds - Reds)

During the award presentation ceremony, Vijaya Aasuri invited the sponsors and dignitaries onto the stage. The guests for the presentation included Jayaram Komati (Ex TANA President), Nadella Gangadhar( Ex TANA President), Venkat Maddipati (Sankara Eye Foundation – SEF), Murali Krishnamurthy (Sankara Eye Foundation – SEF), Murthy Vuppala (You Smile Dental), Santhi Raju Dodda (Swathi Tiffins & Milpitas Namaste Plaza)) and Vijay Gariney (Shree Jewelers). Jayaram Komati speaking at this occasion congratulated BATA and the players for dedication for the game. Nidhi Gupta from western union conveyed her message by congratulating all the winning teams and commended BATA for successfully hosting BATA Cup 2011. Venkat Maddipati and Murali Krishnamurthy of SEF speaking jointly thanked BATA for choosing SEF as the beneficiary of the event. They applauded BATA for continued support and partnership for the past several years. They stated that the funds received today will play significant part in SEF’s effort to provide free Eye clinical services in India. Mr.Maddipati mentioned that BATA is one of the key supporters and partners of SEF in promoting the cause as well as fundraising.

Srinivas Kolli (BATA President) thanked all the sponsors for their sponsorship to this event. He also thanked all the teams for their participation and support. Srinivas Kolli mentioned that BATA takes up multiple non-profit initiatives every year such as Volley Ball tournament, Cricket Cup & various fund raiser concerts raising funds to several NPOs such as India Literacy Project (ILP), Spandana, CIF etc. Srinivas Kolli introduced the BATA committee consisting of Srini Mangipudi, Ramesh Konda, Kamesh Malla, Kalyan Kattamuri, Vijaya Aasuri, Yashwanth Kudaravalli, Sirisha Battula and Jyotsna Bendapudi. Srinivas Kolli also thanked Veeru Vuppala, Prasad Mangina, Ravi Thiruveedhula, Kalyan Kattamuri, Yashwanth Kudaravalli, Sumanth Pusuluri and Karun Veligeti for their help in conducting this event. Srinivas Mutyala (TV9), Srikar Boddu (Photos) and Virijallu (Bay Area Telugu Radio) were specially thanked for tournament coverage.

Srinivas Kolli invited tournament coordinator Ravi Thiruveedhula to talk about the tournament. Ravi thanked all the volunteers who toiled 2 long days in hot sun to make the event seamless and successful. He mentioned how much passionate & driven the BATA team is in conducting such events and thanked everyone for their help & support. BATA promised a much bigger tournament next year and specially thanked Cricbay & TCA, the tennis ball cricket organizations in the Bay area for their invaluable support. Special thanks were mentioned to Sunil Shenoy and Krishnan from Cricbay for their logistic support. Kalyan Kattamuri and Prasad Mangina thanked all the volunteer umpires who helped during the tournament and also the sponsors. Finally during the main awards, the winners & runners trophies coupled with the individual trophies were awarded to all the teams by BATA Cup 2011 tournament sponsors. And BATA team handed over the proceeds from the tournament to Sankara Eye Foundation.