World Cup @Rs 1.30 lakh each for 9 UP players

LUCKNOW:All nine Uttar Pradesh players in the Indian team for the 3rd World Junior Soft Tennis Championship, scheduled to be held at Suncheon City in South Korea from November 18-25, reportedly had to shell out Rs 1.30 lakh each.

The players – Aman Goel, Harsh Chaturvedi, Shreyansh Kumar, Tanushri Pandey, Sasa Katiyar, Reet Parihar, Muskaan Yadav, Shreya Kumar and Pragya Tiwari — were asked by the sports body to fund their participation even at the time of trials in Bhopal last month.

“Most of the players paid even after the expiry of the last date for depositing the money,” said one of the team officials on condition of anonymity.

“There was no other option as the sports body doesn’t have funds to finance the tour.”

The best thing on the part of the Amateur Soft Tennis Association, Uttar Pradesh, was that it contributed Rs 20,000 for a player who failed to manage the entire amount.

“It’s a great gesture on the part of the state body and we all should appreciate them for this,” said the guardian of the player.

Sources confirmed that this was not for the first time when soft tennis players were asked to bear their expenses for participating in an event. “Even in the nationals, we fund our trips which include expenses on travelling, fooding, lodging and local conveyance,” said a senior player.

UPASTA secretary, Deepak Chawla was also of the view that the issue related to finance their trip was already informed to the players and there was ambiguity in this.

“We aren’t getting any support from the government so we are bound to spend money from own pockets. We do our best at from our end, but the expenses are too much and beyond the reach of the sports body.”

He, however, hoped that many among the UP players have potential to win medals at the world championship, and it would be a big honour, if somebody does it.

FINE BOWLING

Rishabh Sharma (5/19) and Rahul Verma (4/22) bowled well to help Panthers’ Academy beat Star Montessori Club in a C division league match by six wickets, at the LDA Stadium here on Thursday. The two got the rivals out for 65 in 17.3 overs before their side reach home in just 11 overs.

IRFAN SHINES

Irfan took 6/28 as Yorker Cricket Club defeated Awadh Cricket Academy by 96 runs in a league match of the Indira Cup, at the Chowk Stadium here on Thursday.

Irfan also hit a half-century as YCC scored 231/7 in 30 overs. Abhishek Roshan and Aditya Singh too made half centuries. In reply, ACA were shot out at 135 in 28.4 overs. Samast Mitra hit highest 66.

OPEN CHESS

The 14th Sunday Open Chess Tournament is scheduled to be played on November 18 here. The tourney, which would be organized in four different age categories, carries Rs 5,000 as prize money.