Tournaments have shut and sprung in and around Delhi – Jain tournament, Salwan tournament, Mayor Shield, Lalu Mandhata (in Ghaziabad), Shaheed Smriti (in Agra), Sheesh Mahal (in Lucknow), All-India tournament (in Firozabad), State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (in Jaipur) and Ajmal Khan tournament were popular and prestigious part of cricket in the region. All are gone now. There are only a couple of notable new entrants: J. P. Atray in Chandigarh and Om Nath Sood in Delhi. The Om Nath Sood tournament is one of the best in the zone. “I always wanted the juniors to get an opportunity to play with the seniors. Hence this tournament in the memory of my father! I started with a budget of Rs. 8000 when the tournament was played on matting. The recent one cost us Rs.8 lakhs. We offer the best of prizes and playing conditions. It has increasingly become difficult to organise a tournament,” said Pramod Sood, who is expecting financial assistance from the state association from next year.
