BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Sydney, organised the 2014 of the Pramukh Cup cricket tournament over three days from Saturday to Monday, April 19 to 21 at Granville Park, Merrylands. A record number of players took part in this year's tournament with more than 90 yuvaks and kishores registering.
The tournament was officially opened in the presence of Thakorji by the State Member for Parramatta, Dr Geoff Lee. Participants were reminded of the true aim of the tournament: to promote samp, suradbhav and ekta. Then it was down to business as the teams started the first of their round robin games. Each team, which consisted of 11 players, was named after Swaminarayan Bhagwan. The Group A teams were Shriji, Sahajanand, Harikrishna and Narayanmuni and the Group B teams were Shri Hari, Nilkanth, Ghanshyam and Sarjudas.
Each team played two games on the first day and one game on the second day with the top two teams in each group going through to the finals on Monday. Both Shriji and Nilkanth established themselves as the favourites, topping their respective groups and winning their semi-finals to set up a classic final. The final was a hard fought and close encounter, going down to the final over. It was the Nilkanth team who won in the end and lifted this year's Pramukh Cup.
Man of the series with awarded to Jalpesh Patel from Shriji who scored an amazing 234 runs over five games, an average of 47 runs per innings.
Throughout the tournament, players forged new friendships and learned the importance of team work, dedication and unity, aspects that Pramukh Swami Maharaj practices and preaches with great dedication in his life.