Dear respected community members in the D.C., MD and VA areas:
On behalf of EKTARA, we would like to express our sincere and heartfelt gratitude to all of you who braved the cold weather to show up with family and friends in support of the first ever Bangladeshi cricket tournament in the D.C. metro area, the "EKTARA Cricket Cup 2011". First and foremost, our sincere thanks to all the teams and their respective players without whom this tournament would not have been possible. Thank you guys from the bottom of our hearts! A special thank also go to all the umpires and scorers for their dedicated service.
The tournament was held on Saturday, the 26th of March, the day of the 40th anniversary of the independence of Bangladesh. It was truly a memorable, fun filled, and exciting daylong event showcasing some quality cricket. A total of eight teams participated in the 10/10 format cricket tournament. The teams were- ABBA, BABA Tigers, D.C. Bengal Tigers, D.C. Metro Tigers, DU Cheetah, GMU Bengal Tigers, Mustang and Sterling Sobuj Songho. After a fearlessly and closely contested knockout round, four teams- ABBA, D.C. Bengal Tigers, DU Cheetah and GMU Bengal Tigers advanced to the semi finals. The two winners of the semifinals- DU Cheetah and GMU Bengal Tigers then advanced to the final. The final match between these two teams was a closely contested game that had a nail biting finish. At the end of the day, the DU Cheetah emerged as the winner just by 9 runs and hence was declared the Champion for the first ever "EKTARA Cricket Cup 2011". Congratulations Dhaka University Cheetah! Al-Amin of ABBA was declared as the best batsman of the tournament and Syed of GMU Bengal Tigers was declared as the best bowler of the tournament.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank H.E. Mr. Akramul Qader, Ambassador of Bangladesh to the U.S., for inaugurating this event. Also thanks to Mr. Jashim Uddin, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Bangladesh, and Mr. Nazmul Hoque, First Secretary, Embassy of Bangladesh, for their gracious presence and encouragements.
Thanks go to Mr. Shibbir Ahmed, Editor, www.Khabor.com and Mr. Safi Delwar Kajol, Editor, www.news-bangla.com for their coverage of the event. Also, thanks to the following email groups of Alapon, BAAI, BABA, BCCDI, Chottola, and Khabor for spreading the news of our tournament to their respective subscribers. We would also like to specially thank Mr. Ahsan Huq representing the Bengali service of the Voice of America (VOA) for their active support and presence during this event, Mr. Shibly Shiraj for making the wonderful banner, and iDesignBD for creating the beautiful flyer for our event.
Thanks also to the following individuals for their support and help- Mr. Arifur Rahman, Mr. Golam Asheaque Khan, Mr. Shah Habibur Rahman and Mr. Shamim Chowdhury. Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts!
Last but not least, our sincere thanks to all the EKTARA members who worked hard and put countless hours to make this a successful and enjoyable event. Without their help, this would not have been a reality. Thank you team EKTARA!
With the continued support and cooperation of our community, we hope to make EKTARA Cricket Cup an annual event.
Warmest regards,
EKTARA
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