The Annual Go Dharmic Cricket Day

For the fourth year in a row, team Go Dharmic held our annual charity cricket day at Luton Town and Indians Cricket Club on the 10th July. With rain forecast, we were slightly apprehensive if the game would have gone ahead, however, it turned out to be a beautiful day to play, with not a drop of rain in sight!

Throughout the day, a delicious spread of North and South Indian food was provided by A1 Dosa, Taste of Paradise, Urshna Aiyer, Anil & Sheila Randerwala. The players, who some had never tried some of the dishes, enjoyed the food immensely. We would like to thank both companies, for supporting us by providing the food.

This year the game was held in memory of Dave Parsooth, who sadly passed away in 2017. He was well known throughout Luton for his leadership skills, strong character and skills as a cricketer.   As well as being a brilliant administrator and chairman of Luton Town and Indians he is known for mentoring ex England cricketer Monty Panesar throughout his most prolific years.

The day was one of good friendships, wonderful moments and a well-played match.  The Samena XI got off to a flyer with 38 runs off the first two overs mostly scored by Amartya Kaul, followed up with former England star Owais Shah smashing a quickfire fifty.  Things were looking bleak. Then Akash Tailor, Nitin Parsooth and Jack Laraman bowled excellent spells slowing down the run rate and bringing the GD team back into contention.  Founder of Samena Capital Shirish Saraf hit some great shots but in the end, the Samena was restricted to 186.

The opening powerhouses of Asif Khan & Zawar Hussain tucked into the bowling early on putting on a 50 partnership with Wasrulla going on to reach a 50 in great style with 13 Boundaries.  Although the Samena bowlers chipped away with regular wickets, with Sameer Fancy’s loopy leg breaks causing a few nervous moments. In the end, the GD team finished reached the total with 10 overs to spare.

Samena Capital London is an alternative investment group, who operates in the Subcontinent, Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. They are invested in helping young minds, by inspiring and empowering them and building places for education, they also take part in projects which help combat poverty. Their company ethics are very much aligned to our Go Dharmic campaigns; thus we love getting together with them on events like our annual cricket day. Each team allowed a mixed level of ability to play, along with professionals such as former England cricketers Owais Shah and Neil Burns play, and Monty Panesar made a special appearance. A massive thank you to Samena Capital London for taking the time to take part in our match, and for their generous donations to both charities.

Our Samena friends and everyone involved with the match were deeply saddened by the recent passing away of their close friend Ben Goldsmith’s daughter Iris, who tragically met with an accident in Somerset a few days ago.  They had canceled all of the rest of their tour but played this charity game and will honor her memory. We raised £3500 from Personal donations for Macmillan Cancer Research & Go Dharmic and thank everyone who donated.