The vibrant atmosphere at the Cricket Fiesta held on Wednesday at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute (MGI) football ground did not go unnoticed. The event saw the participation of a large number of students, teachers and cricket fans.
Several eminent personalities were also present, including chief whip Suren Dayal, MP Dhiraj Kamajeet and Ali Parkar, president of the Federation of Cricket Clubs (FCC).
The event, organised by the newly set up Royal Challengers Cricket Club (RCCC) involved a match between two colleges namely Mahatma Gandhi Secondary School (MGSS) Flacq and Mahatma Gandhi Secondary School (Moka).
The two main cricket clubs present were RCCC and All Stars Cricket Club which were supporting MGSS Flacq and MGSS Moka respectively.
The euphoric mood of young cricket players demonstrated that there is indeed a growing interest in cricket. Vivek Gupta Ramnarain, president of RCCC highlighted that the main objective behind the fiesta is to promote cricket across the island.
“The game is gradually becoming popular among Mauritians and we are targetting mainly the youth. We hope that there will be purely Mauritian teams in the future which can even play at the international level,” he said.
Ramnarain also stated that they intend to introduce street cricket to further develop the sport and make Mauritians understand the rules and regulations.
The Physical Education (PE) teachers play an important role in promoting the game in schools.
Rishi Sowamber, PE teacher at MGSS Moka stated that the students are interested in cricket.
“We learnt it during studying in India and now, we want to develop the spirit of the game here. At first, it was not very clear but they later become more interested,” he said.
MP Kamajeet also shared his views on cricket. He described that cricket was a unifying force.
“I think it is the right time to promote cricket as Mauritius shares good relations with India and South Africa,” he underlined.
Parkar also welcomed the initiative and encouraged other schools to organise similar activities.
The winning team, MGSS Flacq could not hide their joy after they won by 25 runs and 8 wickets.
Avish Jungalee, captain of the team said, “Cricket is a fun game and is different from other sports. I am very happy and proud to have participates in this event.”