More grassroot tournaments needed: MCA president Vilasrao Deshmukh

Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) president Vilasrao Deshmukh stressed upon the importance of grassroots level tournaments, during the prize distribution of the Seth Gorvhandas Shield and B Khichadia Shield at the Khar Gymkhana on Friday.

He said that such tournaments are vital for cricket in the city and in his tenure as the president of MCA, he would like to restore Mumbai cricket to its former glory.

The union minister of science and technology and earth sciences said, “There was a time when a majority of the Indian team was comprised of cricketers from the city but today the representation has fallen greatly.

“Mumbai was known as the pundhari of cricket back then. I hope that Mumbai will produce at least five or six players who will be good enough to play in the India squad,” he said.

Deshmukh added, “In order to reach that quality of international cricket, the local players need to play a lot of competitive cricket and tournaments like Gorvandhas Shield provide the opportunities to budding cricketers to compete.”

Deshmukh presented the Gorvhandar Shield to the winners Khar Gymkhana and the B Khichadia Shield for under-16 cricketers to Rizvi Springfield school along with a number of individual honours in both tournaments.