BOMBAY GYMKHANA - SRAM MAHARASHTRA LEAGUE
Starts on 23rd June 2008 at Bombay Gymkhana, Mumbai.
     

Organised by Indian Squash Professionals
   At the prize distribution function held at Bombay Gymkhana the winning "Willstrop" team Navin Jangra, Ravindra Jagtap, Niraj Shirgaokar, Sachin Jadhav, Pranay Merchant and others with their trophy   
 


Ravi Jagtap, Niraj Shirgaokar clinch title for Team Willstrop

Pradeep Vijayakar | tnn

As on 22nd June 2008

Ravi Jagtap jets around the world trying to further the squash career of his son India 's u-17 champ Aditya Jagtap, ranked No 7 in the world. On Sunday the 44-year-old experienced some of the pleasures of winning titles that his son does when winning one of two crucial ties that helped Team Willstrop claim the title in the inaugural Bombay Gymkhana-SRAM Squash League at the Bombay Gymkhana courts. The league was played over one and half months with players of various ages from 8 to 60-plus Ravi Puri from the city and Pune spread over the eight teams.

The team, named after England 's world-class player James Willstrop beat Team Shabana named after four-time world champ from Egypt, Amr with a 4-3 score line.

Jagtap won a close tie against a younger pro from Bombay Gymkhana Manish Chavan 3-2. The other crucial tie was won by skipper Niraj Shirgaokar who outmaneuvered the younger Cyrus Vakil 3-1. With former international Manish Chotrani, with a stiff handicap of minus 9, losing to Yudhvir Katoch 2-3, the match hung on the seventh and last tie between Naveen Jangra and the seasoned Raj Arora. Navin won 3-0. Skipper Shirgaokar paid tribute to Sachin Jadhav who won most of his ties and to the younger kids in the team like Pranay Merchant. The losers missed Vikram Malhotra who in in Chennai preparing for the Asian Juniors.

Team Palmer beat Team Mathew 4-1 to claim third spot. Their winners were Rishad Billimoria, Sanjay Pawar, Jehangir Surti and Rohan Vora. Aditya Jagtap pulled off a creditable 3-2 win for Team Mathew over CCI pro Temo Gomez.

Final results: 

Team Willstrop bt Team Shabana 4-3: 

Sachin Jadhav bt Aouloke Mathur 3-1; 
Niraj Shirgaokar bt Cyrus Vakil 3-1; 
Ravindra Jagtap bt Manish Chavan 3-2; 
Pranay Merchant lost to Rahil Fazelbhoy 2-3; 
Dheerav Moolani lost to Nikhil Jain 0-3, 
Manish Chotrani lost to Yudhvir Katoch 2-3; 
Navin Jangra bt Raj Arora 3-0.

Semis:

Team Shabana got past Team Matthew 5-2 win 
Team Willstrop beat Team Palmer 5-1.

  

OBJECTIVE:

1)       To set up a framework of increased match play between players in the state
2)      To enhance the camaraderie between the players in the state
3)      To encourage our young players to enjoy the experience of playing on a team 
4)      To enhance the general standard of squash in the state

The Bombay Gymkhana along with SRAM will start a Squash League starting on 5 April 2008 

Here is the format – There will be 8 teams ( 7 players in each team – with 2 reserves )

The players that have been shortlisted are – ( A maximum of 56 players + 16 reserves, depending on the response will be selected )

Indicative classifications are -

  1. Vikram Malhotra     A+         39. Rohit More                 A+      77. Ivan Philip E  
  2. Manish Chotrani      A+         40. Sanjay Pawar             A      78. Ajan Jayant C
  3. Aditya Jagtap          A+         41. Chetan Ladiwala         A      79 K Gandhi     C
  4. Gaurav Yadav         A           42. Vaman Apte               A        80. MGupta      D
  5. Rishad Pandole       A+         43. Abhinav Sinha             A         81. A. Singhi    D
  6. Vikas Jangra             A+       44. Sachika Balwani       B+       82. S.Yadav      D
  7. Sandeep Jangra         A+      45. Shivangi Paranjpe      B+       83. N.Jiandani  C
  8. Cyrus Vakil               A        46. Shaheen Madraswala   C       84. C.Rathore B+
  9. Raja Parthasarathy     A           47. Mandy Kennedy           A       85. P.Motta    C
  10. Rohit Thawani            A          48. Soumya Karki               B+     86. A.Kutty    C
  11. Deepak Moolani         A           49. Ankita Sharma             B+     87. V.Sanghi   A
  12. Mahesh Mangaonkar   A          50. Tanya Arora                 D       88. R. Arora    A
  13. Abhishek Pradhan       A           51. Urvashi Mishra            C       89. B.Bajaj      A
  14. Caran Arora                 B+         52. Urvashi Joshi              D       90.  A.Jayant   E
  15. Akhilesh Nayak           A          53. Aditya Kochhar             C      91. S.Goyal    B+
  16. Aakash Borwankar      B+         54. Karan Kochhar           D       92. S.Malhotra B+
  17. Vrishab Kotian             B+         55. Anju Sharma              D      93. R.Jagtap     B+
  18. Rahil Fazelbhoy           C           56. Varsha Pandey            D      94. S.Anand     B+
  19. Ishan Advani                C           57. Yash Bhansali              D     95. A.Yadav    D
  20. Arjun Kochhar              C           58. Riyan Bhatia                C     96. A.Singh     D
  21. Raghav Mehrotra          C           59. Adesh Bhansali            C     97. J.Mohd.     B+
  22. Laxman Joshi               A+          60. Cyrus Sidhwa            C       98. V.Ladi       C
  23. Jehangir Surti               A            61. Rohan Zaveri               C     99. A.Agarwal E
  24. Dhiraj Nagpal               A            62. Sachin Jadhav              A 100. Y.Biyani     D
  25. Shashi Pandey              B+           63. Naveen Jangra            A  101. T.Gomez   A+
  26. Nitin Singh                   C             64. Mohit Yadav                D 102. Ai Agarwal E
  27. Jagannath Kuyte           C            65. Namrata Purohit            D 103. AI Singh   A
  28. Samir Mistry                 C            66. Khushi Agarwal           D   104. D.Surti    A
  29. Ness Billimoria             C            67. Vijay Waghela              A 105. D.Kochhar A
  30. Deerav Moolani            B+           68. Santosh More             A
  31. Rohan Vora                   B+          69. Ben Kennedy              E
  32. Yohan Pandole              D            70. Yohan Surti                  E
  33. Kunj Rawani                 D            71. Param Maru                   E
  34. Mishal Advani              D            72. Aryan Hemdev             E
  35. Chaitanya Desai            D           73. Aditya Mehra                E
  36. Sandeep Paswan            D           74. Rajat Agarwal               D
  37. Anuj Behl                      C            75. Armaan Shaikh             D
  38. Aman Girish Rau           E             76. Shaheda Madraswala    C

The Procedure –

The following is the classification of players.

A+  9;  A 25 ;  B+16;  C 23; D 22;  E10;  Total 105

 The Fixtures

  1. April 5
  2. April 26
  3. June 7
  4. Semi Finals on June 21
  5. Finals on June 28

After players have confirmed their availability for all the fixtures, they will send their entries to bgsramleague@yahoo.com

Teams will be constituted on 29 March at the Bombay Gymkhana. All participants are invited for the draw and dinner at 8 pm.

Teams will be divided into two groups of 4 teams each where they will play a round robin, i.e. 3 fixtures each.

The Top 2 teams will play a criss cross semi – 8

No.1 players will be decided by the BG-SRAM

Then all A players names will be put in one bowl, B+ players in another bowl and so on. The No.1 players will take turns in picking players from the bowl.

The composition of each team will be

1 A+ player, 3 A players, 2 B+ players, 2 C Players, 1 D/E Player from the list i.e 9 players on each team. Captains will be appointed for each team. It will be their responsibility to coordinate the fixtures and ensure team participation. The organizers may make minor modifications in the team to try and make them as equal as possible in case one or two teams are looking lop sided. 

Each fixture will be played on a Saturday. Venues will be intimated. There will be 2 reserves on each team, The BG-SRAM will decide a handicap for the reserve players matches if required.( e.g If a C player from one team doesn’t show up and the reserve player is an D player, then an appropriate handicap will be given to balance the contest ) All players are expected to conform strictly to the schedule to ensure the success of the league. One person from the BG-SRAM will be in charge of each fixture.

 Each participant will pay a fee of Rs.500 to the BG-SRAM as detailed below

 There will be a Prize Distribution Dinner immediately after the finals – at the BG

Prize Money

The Winning Team will win. Rs.40,000

2nd Place Team will win Rs.30,000

3rd Place team Rs.20,000

4th Place Team Rs.10,000

All Prize money to be shared equally between all 9 members of the team.

The Player of the League (Voted by the 8 captains, BG Rep and SRAM rep) will get an award

All teams are expected to play all their fixtures. In the event of even one fixture being forfeited, a team will be scratched out.

The Pools and the Schedule : The Teams have been named after the Top 8 players in the world

Pool A – Team Shabana, Ashour, Gaultier, Palmer

Pool B – Team Willstrop, Mathew, Lincou, Darwish

On all Match days 2 fixtures each will be played at the same venue from 3 pm onwards. All players are expected to report at 2.45 pm. One venue will be the BG (South Mumbai ) and the other one will be Otters Club ( North Mumbai ) 

April 5

Team Shabana  vs Team Ashour)

Team Gaultier  vs Team Palmer ) Both these fixtures at the BG 

Team Willstrop vs Team Mathew)

Team  Lincou  vs Team Darwish  ) Both these fixtures at Otters 

April 26

Team Shabana vs Team Gaultier)

Team Ashour vs Team Palmer)      Both these fixtures at BG 

Team Willstrop vs Team Lincou)

Team Mathew vs Team Darwish)  Both these fixtures at Otters

June 7

Team Shabana vs Team Palmer)

Team Ashour vs Team Gaultier)   Both these fixtures at BG

Team Willstrop vs Team Darwish)

Team Mathew vs Team Lincou   ) Both these fixtures at Otters

After this the Top 2 teams will move into the semi finals – to be played at the BG on 21 June. ( CRISS CROSS I.E Top team of Pool A vs 2nd place team of Pool B and top team of Pool B vs 2nd Place team of Pool A )

FINALS / 3rd/4th place playoff at BG on 28 June 2008.

If you are keen to play the league. Please

  1. Confirm that you will be available to play all the fixtures if selected to bgsramleague@yahoo.com  by 20 March 2008 – 6 pm.
  2. Pay Rs. 500 immediately to the representative that has been nominated at your club or Vidya at the ISP office

The Tournament Organizers have nominated one person from each club who will be entrusted with the task of the collection of Rs. 500 from each player.

The players nominated to collect the money from all players from their respective clubs are :

Rohit More              – CCI

Jehangir Surti        - Willingdon

Sunil Verma           - Jindal & Hiranandani

Dinesh Advani        - Bombay Gymkhana

Avinash Bhavnani  - Otters

Ashok Nagpal       - Khar Gym

Sachin Jadhav       - JVP

Anjali Mangaonkar- Club Aquaria

Deepak Moolani   - Pune

Sanjay Waghmare – Matunga Gym

Vidya  ISP              - For all others

Teams will be finalized on 29 March 2008 at the BG at 8 pm. Please be there for the draw and dinner. In the event that you are not selected on any team your money will be refunded by 31 March 2008

The decision on all matters pertaining to the League will be the BG-SRAM’s.

If your name is not on the list of 105 players and you are keen to play the league please send a mail to bgsramleague@yahoo.com

All queries pertaining to the tournament to be addressed to the same mailing address.

   
  87th Tournament Organised by ISP