The III T-20 Shaheed Memorial Cricket Tournament commenced at University of Petroleum Energy Studies (UPES) on Wednesday. This year the tournament is being organised in the memory of late Rifle man Sandeep Singh Rawat of VI Garhwal Rifles who laid down his life while fighting the insurgents in the Kashmir valley at Tungdhar in October this year. The tourney was inaugurated by the father of martyr, H S Rawat who was also the Chief Guest on the occasion.
In the inaugural ceremony glowing tributes were paid to martyr Sandeep Rawat by Director Student Affairs, UPES, Brig Dr. A K Sharma (Rtd). A cheque of Rs 1, 21,000/- would be presented by UPES to the family of martyr on January 09.
In the tournament ten teams are competing which include teams from various government organizations, Indian Army and the hosts.
The inaugural match was played between the hosts UPES and team from agriculture department, UPES batting first scored 149 runs at the loss of seven wickets in their quota of 20 overs. In reply the team of agriculture department could manage only 115 runs in their allotted overs. UPES won the match by 34 runs.
In the second match team of state secretariat overcame a spirited challenge from Army XI to win the match.
The Director Media Affairs, UPES Arun Dhand shared that the “Shaheed Memorial Cricket Tournament” was conceptualized in the year 2014 with the noble cause of financially supporting the family of a Martyr from Indian Armed forces annually. The first tournament was held in the year 2014 in the memory of ‘late Gajendra Singh Bisht’ who hailed from Dehradun and laid down his life fighting the terrorists in 26/11 attack at Mumbai. last year the tournament was held in the memory of late Rifleman Shri Shishir Mall who also hailed from Dehradun and had given the supreme sacrifice of laying down his life while fighting the insurgents in the Kashmir valley in 2015.’’