Prize Money bonanza for Obaidullah Cup

Traditionally acclaimed domestic tournament, Obaidaullah Cup, will see a huge prize money bonanza this year. Winner of the prestigious cup will walk away with Rs.11 lac while the runners up half that amount. The third finisher will get Rs.2.75 while the fourth team’s consolation will be to the tune of Rs.1 lac.

Obaidaullah Cup is one of the oldest tournaments in India, patronized in the beginning by the Royals of Bhopal State.

Though started in the early 30s, it was not held in the 90s and 2000s till present Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivaji Rao Chauhan took special interest. Since then the tournament has been going from strength to strength.

Initially merely a couple of lac of rupees were given as prize money; now it has been a huge upward revision. For some time in the 90s, Delhi’s Sr. Nehru Cup was the highest money spender on prize money, but recently a tournament in Ludhiana overtook, while the Obaidaullah raised the bar beyond the reach of now.

Nehru Society of course conducts various age group tournaments, spend nearly the same sum as collective prize money.

For Obaidullah, its almost Rs.20 lac is spent on prize money alone though in addition to it variety of other awards such as Best Player, Best Goalie, Best Scorer, and others are also lined up.

This year two international teams, one from Malaysia and the other from Auckland, New Zealand, trained by Indian goalie Jude Menezes will take part. Four teams from Madhya Pradesh will also take part in the preliminary round.

An official of the Madhya Pradesh Sports Department said that teams four teams, Bhopal Red, Bhopal Blue, Gwalior Mahakoshal and central India (Jabalpur) are given entry from MP State.

MP Chief Minister Shivraj Rao Chouhan will launch the event on December 19 at 18 hrs in Aisbagh stadium.

Other teams in the fray include Indian Oil Corporation, Air India and ONGC and BPCL. A total of eight teams will play in the international round that follows preliminary rounds.

The top four teams will enter the semi-finals. Semi-finals and finals are slated for December 24 and December 25, respectively.