Holders JVPGC face tough challenge
The defending champions Juhu Vile Parle Gymkhana Club with a mixture of seasoned stalwart Noel Pinto, ex-state champion and exciting juniors Dev Shroff, Maanav Shah and Akshat Jain face tough challenge from Gomantak Seva Sangh, led by ex-national veteran champion Yogesh Desai and comprising Bhavitavya Shah, Shirshir Juvekar in the MSDTTA Premier division five-team Inter-Club League which gets underway at Juhu Vile Parle Gymkhana from Friday. While Borivali’s MCF (Mandpeswar Civil Federation) led by mercurial Akshay Gogri, also having Swayam Ibrampurkar and junior Yash Modi in their ranks, will be making their debut in the premier division.
In the wake of Indian women’s team’s stupendous show, especially that of Manika Batra’s double gold in the Commonwealth Games, MSDTTA, for the first time in decades, made efforts to promote the women’s players’ participation. Due to their efforts , there will now be eight teams in the fray with two divisions of four teams each. The holders star-studded Mulund Gymkhana with Charvi Kawle, Janhavi Chemburkar and the Mhatre sisters, Shalmali and Mrunmayee will be out to retain their hold on the first division trophy, while the “B” division will witness JVPG (Hardee Patel and Risha Mirchandani) and Borivali’s MCF (Siddhi Kolekar, Isha Shah, Anupriya Sharma and veteran Pratibha Sawant), will be vying for the “B” division honours. The semi-final and finals of the II, III and IV divisions too will be played concurrently.