The Indian Mission in Israel’s plan to hold the India Trophy T20 tournament this year for youngsters of Indian community in the country has generated a lot of interest here.
The Indian Embassy announced plans to hold the tournament during the Republic Day celebrations attended by hundreds of Indians.
“Most of the youngsters in this country closely follow Indian cricket and Sachin Tendulkar is their overwhelming favourite,” Naor Gudket, the chief executive of Israel Cricket Association told
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“Fox Sports is subscribed by the Indian community in the country for only one reason — to watch India’s cricket matches. I think the tournament will bring the community very close to the Indian government and people. The response will be far better than most of the Indian cultural programmes or film festivals have generated,” he said.
“The matches will be played on the weekends in March at three possible venues — Ashdod, Dimona and Beersheva — and we are trying to limit the number of teams to ten, even though the response has been overwhelming,” he said.
The three possible venues have been selected as per the strength of the Indian community. Seven teams, mostly comprising of Indians, from these towns are already active in the Israel Cricket League.
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“As far as connecting to the Indian community is concerned, this is a masterstroke by the Indian Mission. No diplomacy works better than cricket diplomacy as far as the Indian community in Israel is concerned.
“Though most of the Indian Jews are traditional, they come out in large numbers in Sabbath for cricket,” said Eliyahu Yosef, a 72-year-old cricket enthusiast.
“The embassy has been engaging in this kind of public outreach activity for the past two years. The idea behind the initiative is to interact with the local Indian community in an informal, non-official, relaxed setting and get to know about their well-being,” spokesman of the Indian Embassy in Tel Aviv, Sujit Ghosh, said.