As Harilal Shah Memorial cricket tourney bowls off this weekend

The third edition of the Harilal Shah Memorial Tournament (HSMT) is set to bowl off this Saturday in Nairobi. The tournament, which was slated for last week was pushed forward due to the unavailability of players taking part in the just concluded quadrangular series.

The tournament is hosted by Nairobi Gymkhana in honour of the late Harilal Shah, the Club’s first captain who passed away in 2014. He was also the captain of the East Africa Cricket team and chairman of the Nairobi Gymkhana.

Ten teams, divided into two pools have been invited to participate in this year’s tournament. Defending champions Kanbis Sports Club are grouped alongside runners-up Stray Lions Cricket Club, Ruaraka Sports Club and Obuya Cricket Academy whereas Nairobi Gymkhana will be up against Sikh Union Club, Premier Club and SCLYL in the preliminary matches.

The preliminary stage matches will be played on Saturday afternoons for the first two weeks due to Sunday league matches. The next week will feature matches from 9:30 am on Mashujaa day (October 20), Saturday afternoon (October 22) and October 23 from 9:30am. The fixtures for the semi-finals and final matches will be announced thereafter, probably accommodating the Diwali festivals that culminate on October 30.

The tournament organisers have decided to do away with the plate event to encourage competition. “This year’s event will be even more competitive as we have decided to do away with the plate silverware. As such, all teams will be playing for the rotating trophy. We also have two pools instead of four, so every team will get to play four matches in the preliminary stage as opposed to last year whereby they only played two each,” stated Dr Ritesh Pamnani, one of the HSMT committee members.

In their opening fixture, two time defending champions Kanbis Sports Club will be hosting Obuya Cricket Academy at Eastleigh High School. Runners-up Stray Lions face off with last year’s plate finalists Kenya Kongonis Cricket Club at the Nairobi Jaffereys Sports Club while plate winners Nairobi Gymkhana host Swamibapa.

The Nairobi Gymkhana HSMT committee consists of Club Sports Secretary, Kalpesh Solanki, Dr Ritesh Pamnani and Sanish Chadha.