Kyiv’s Obolon Stadium, on the city’s outskirts, is used to hosting the capital’s underdog soccer team.
But on June 18, it hosted the country’s new underdog sport: cricket. Enthusiasts believe the sport has a big future in Ukraine, and that this high-profile event was an important first step.
Few minority sports could have called out more celebrities for their Ukrainian launch party.
Mohammad Zahoor, cricket lover and leading businessman, gets in on the action during a lunchtime knockabout.
They ranged from Ukrainian pop diva and actress Kamaliya, Pakistan Ambassador Ghazanfar Ali Khan, British Ambassador Leigh Turner and Ukraine’s most eminent sportsman, Serhiy Bubka, the president of the National Olympic Committee and world record-holder in the pole vault.
The two opposing captains, John Illingworth (center), of the British-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce selection, and Pandian Thamarai (right), of the Kyiv Cricket Club selection, discuss the future of cricket in Ukraine. John Illingworth is nephew of England’s all-time great cricket player, Ray illingworth, one of only nine players to have taken 2,000 wickets and made 20,000 runs. Pandian Thamarai is the founder of Kyiv Cricket Club and known as the “godfather of Ukrainian cricket.”
The hundreds-strong crowd not only enjoyed such illustrious company, but also the finest standards of corporate hospitality due to the generosity of the ISTIL Group, the event sponsors.
A young Ukrainian cricketer defends well on a fast ball.
Thanks to his Pakistani-British roots, ISTIL owner and Kyiv Post publisher Mohammad Zahoor is a passionate cricket fan and firmly convinced of the need to bring the sport to his adopted homeland of Ukraine.
Ukrainian actress and pop diva Kamaliya wows guests with a mixture of old and new hits.
The shop-window cricket action was provided by a selection from the Kyiv Cricket Club, which faced off against a selection representing the British-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce (BUCC). The Kyiv Cricket Club, founded in 1999, is the brainchild of Indian Pandian Thamarai. Thamarai captained the winning team on the day, and was handed the inaugural Ambassador’s Cup by Kamaliya.
Punters line up for delicious refreshments courtesy of the ISTIL Group.
According to the president of the British-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce and cricket-loving lawyer Bates C. Toms, cricket will be the summer sport of the future across all of Eastern Europe. “Cricket will be an Olympic sport starting in 2020,” he said, “and by then we want to have a Ukrainian national team up and running.”
The winning Kyiv Cricket Club team triumphantly hoists the Ambassador’s Cup after it was presented by Mohammad Zahoor, Kyiv Post publisher and sponsor of the event, and his wife, Kamaliya.
Britain’s Turner and Ukraine’s Bubka voiced support for this goal during lunchtime speeches. “Cricket also has a broader role to play in nurturing concepts of fair play,” the British ambassador added.
Kyiv Post staff writer Graham Stack can be reached at [email protected]
