Taking a break from heated arguments inside the corridors of justice, a group of young men traded their black robes for whites, over the weekend.
Lawyers representing various firms in the city took part in a limited-overs cricket tournament, which came to a close on Sunday afternoon.
Organised for the first time, the Madras Juris Championship Cup 2014 saw participation of 10 well-known law firms in the city.
Practising advocates of Madras High Court descended on YMCA, Nandanam, on Saturday, and at the end of the league stage, the semi-finals were scheduled at India Pistons cricket ground, Central Polytechnic, on Rajiv Gandhi Salai on Sunday morning.
“I played State-level cricket in school, but completely lost touch after joining college and later, starting work,” said Avinash Wadhwani, who played for ‘Court Boycott’ — the team that lost to Legal Eagles in the finals.
“There was a layer of dust on my kit but I was very excited to get back to the pitch after a long time,” he said.
Each team had just eight players, and each team was allotted eight overs in the league and semis, and 10 overs in the finals.
“The entire tournament was held with a purpose; to bring together advocates of various law firms and also contribute to the education of a few girls at Seva Chakra, an orphanage,” said Goda Raghavan, who, with her advocate friends Vartika and Aravind, began working on the idea, three months ago.
The teams were formed with the support of senior and well-known counsels at Madras High Court. “The cricket match was a very interesting experience. While some of them are often arguing against each other in the courts, here they found themselves in the same team,” she said.
“Such tournaments are held in Bangalore, Mumbai and New Delhi, and we wanted to do something similar in Chennai too,” she said.
Next year, they wish to increase the number of teams and also encourage women advocates to take part in the matches.
K. Srikkanth, member of the World Cup winning team of 1983, gave away the trophy to the winning team.
He said, cricket was a great unifying force in the country and hoped the event would grow bigger and eventually hold inter-city advocate association tournaments.
