A schoolteacher here has built a replica of the IPL 2020 trophy from waste material and got his students to work on painting portraits of captains of the eight teams participating in the T20 tournament as a way to encourage them to take up sports.

“Being born and brought up in a humble family, I have always had a soft corner for children of low-income group families living in slums. Hence, I will be gifting the model to such children after organising a cricket match among them in order to encourage them about sports,” said Arjun Ram Paul (31), an art teacher of Kamal Katesaria School, Dhanbad.

Paul said the two feet model, weighing around 400gm, was made of wastepaper and broken utensils, all put together using adhesive during the last week. He had made similar models of the FIFA World Cup trophy in 2018 and the ICC World Cup in 2019.

“The two students, who worked with me at my house developing the model and paintings, spent less than one hour every day for a week,” he said, adding that he was careful to ensure they observed social distancing norms while working on the project.

“We maintained a distance of a metre among ourselves, wore masks and used sanitisers regularly,” Paul said.

As for the paintings of all the captains _ M.S. Dhoni of Chennai Superkings, Rohit Sharma of Mumbai Indians, Dinesh Karthik of Kolkata Knight Riders, David Warner of Sunrisers Hyderabad, Steve Smith of Rajasthan Royals, K.L. Rahul of King’s XI Punjab, Virat Kohli of Royal Challengers, Bangalore; and Shreyas Iyer of Delhi Capitals _ they used acrylic colours.

“I have been a sports lover since childhood. And I leave no opportunity to promote sports. Since IPL 2020 is being held outside the country in Dubai, I made the model of the trophy to create a buzz around the tournament here among young sports lovers,” Paul said.