One of the most prestigious badminton tournaments for corporates in the city, the 38th Saturday Club Merchant’s Cup in association with The Telegraph was held from February 10 - 18 at the club premises. Several teams from reputed corporate houses in the city participated in the annual competition for badminton enthusiasts. The competition, which was strictly restricted to amateur players, witnessed an admirable display of fair play and sporting spirit throughout the event. Held in three categories namely Gold Plate, Silver Plate and Bronze Bowl, each category of the competition was closely fought and marked by stiff challenges and narrow-margin victories. Special matches were organised for ladies, spouses of employees and those in the 45-plus age group. The finals for all three categories were played on February 18. 6 Ballygunge Place emerged as the Gold Plate champion, Tata Consultancy Services won the Silver Plate while Eveready Industries was announced the winner in the Bronze Bowl category. The final matches, each held in a best-of-three format, were followed by a grand prize distribution ceremony accompanied by cocktails and dinner. Snapshots
(l-r) MK Madan, Romen Kumar Ghosh
“This tournament is for corporates. With so many teams of different organisations taking part, camaraderie is one of the best takeaways. After taking serious decisions at work the whole day, they come here to fight it out in court and also enjoy themselves in the process. Throughout the tournament, players have exhibited great determination, aggression and fighting spirit, yet the atmosphere here has been almost like a carnival, with lots of excitement and entertainment in store every day for both participants and the audience. Also, this year we had a new and very young team winning the Gold Plate which is wonderful!” said MK Madan, sports convener, The Saturday Club.
“It’s lovely being here at The Telegraph Merchants Cup organised by Saturday Club. I enjoyed all the matches. It was a good tournament with highquality players. It was also great to see some girls competing with the boys in the doubles matches. Badminton is one of the most popular sports in the country and so clubs have an important role in identifying and encouraging new talent. I thank the Saturday Club for their venture and as a senior player I feel that if there is more concentration in providing training to promising youngsters, Bengal can again produce players of national and even world-class level,” said chief guest Romen Kumar Ghosh, former national no. 1 in men’s singles badminton.
“The annual Merchants Cup badminton tournament at Saturday Club is one of the four traditional Merchants Cup sports competitions of the city. Having built this tournament into a brand, Saturday Club is very serious about participation rules and regulations. This tournament is only for amateur players who work in the corporate sector and our focus is on friendship and fair play above everything else. We arrange special fun matches with prizes for ladies and veterans as an inclusive gesture since the open doubles format of the tournament means that they are nearly always left out,” said Shaila Jassal, badminton captain of Saturday Club.
The National Insurance team were declared runners-up in the Silver Plate category.
Romen Kumar Ghosh also presented the trophy and prizes to Gold Plate runners-up team, Air India
Team Tata Consultancy Services posed with their Silver Plate and individual prizes. “Though I have participated earlier, this is my first time as captain of my team in the Merchants Cup. I am lucky to have some really amazing players in my team who have performed brilliantly throughout the journey of this tournament. We devised our own strategies when we began to compete for the Silver Plate and are obviously happy that everything went according to our plans. This is a tournament that amateur players like us look forward to the whole year and we begin practising seriously for a month before it starts. This also builds among the team a bond of togetherness which I think is very important. All in all, it was a fantastic experience,” captain of TCS, Tuhin Kanti Maiti (third from right), said.
Bronze Bowl winners Eveready Industries led by their captain Nilanjan Chatterjee (fourth from left) posed with their trophy and prizes with sports convener of Saturday Club MK Madan (in blue). “This is the fourth time that we have participated in the Merchants Cup badminton tournament. Last time we lost in the semi-finals but this time we were better prepared as a team. We had injury issues and lost two of our key players, but we managed to pull through. The final was very thrilling. Two games went to deuce and ultimately we won. It was a fabulous, exciting experience for us,” said Nilanjan Chatterjee.
The Air India team posed a formidable challenge to their opponents in the final matches of the Gold Plate
Moloy Pal (left) of 6 Ballygunge Place accepts his trophy for Most Promising Player from Utpal Singh Roy, Saturday Club past president
Speed, power, agility and acrobatics were some of the many skills displayed by the players of the 6 Ballygunge Place team, who won the Gold Plate.
Utpal Dey (left) received the trophy for Best Player of the 38th Saturday Club Merchants Cup badminton championship from past president of Saturday Club Utpal Singh Roy.
Samriddha Paul (left) of Tata Consultancy Services was awarded the Saaniya Jairath trophy for Best Fighting Lady Player