Youth mostly engaged in learning Vedic Scriptures in Sanskrit in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi decided to test their cricketing skills on Tuesday afternoon but what surprised all was the desi touch the boys gave in to the tournament.
Held on the occasion of the platinum jubilee celebrations of the Varanasi’s Sampurnanand Sanskrit University, one-of-a-kind match was indeed a crowd puller as players dressed in traditional dhoti-kurta showed their best. What added to the event was the ball-by-ball commentary in Sanskrit language.
The players, with tripund (three lines of ”shivling”) on their foreheads played barefoot and were a treat to watch for the audience that had gathered to cheer. The umpires, commentators too wore traditional Indian attire.
Ganesh Dutt Shastri, a teacher of a Sanskrit-medium school in the city, said that the tournament is being held to motivate the students to take up sports.
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Acharya Pawan Kumar Shastri of Shastrath Mahavidyalaya, explained that the tournament itself is unique in its approach.
He said that tradition and sports like cricket can be brought together in a beautiful confluence. This, according to him, is what brought about the idea of organising a cricket tournament in a traditional format.
He added that five teams from various schools are participating in the tournament and that the crowd to watch the matches has been very encouraging.
Apart from the cricket tournament, Shastri said that Sampurnanand Sanskrit Vidyalaya is also organising a number of other events over the course of the next few days to celebrate its 75th founding year.
