Carrom season kicks off with great enthusiasm, participation from U.S. and Canada

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The Carrom season for the year 2022 kicked off January 29, with the start of the North East US Carrom Association (NEUSCA) open event where players from across United States and Canada participated in Edison, New Jersey.

The two-day event was held at E Hotel, Banquet and Conference Center, Edison, NJ on Jan. 29 and Jan. 30, and consisted of Open Singles, Open Doubles and Team Championship, a press release from NEUSCA said.

The total number of participants exceeded the expectations of the committee as 70 players participated, including almost all the top stars from U.S. and Canada. “The competition was tough. The results were unexpected, unpredictable as the carrom game requires and demands exceptional skill to win it,” organizers said.

They gave “A Big Thank You” to the sponsors of this event, Veenitha Bokaria and Tara Joshi from the New York life Insurance company.

“We had great conversations with them and are very hopeful that they will continue to provide support in the future,” organizers said. “We would also thank our other sponsors Cricket clubs of Westchester, Kalantry LLP and Golconda Chimney.” The NEUSCA also thanked Ranjith from Boxes & Tales Photography and Filmmaking for covering the event pro-bono.

“We take this opportunity to thank our Media partners namely ITV Gold, Parikh Worldwide Media and E Hotel,” organizers added.

Last but not least, the NEUSCA thanked two young student volunteers – Chittireddy Vineetha and Master Sai Nimish Bazar “for their valuable time, support, and contribution to the success of the two days event.”

The NEUSCA core committee headed by President Abul Shakeel Baig, Roshan Mushin (Vice president), Arshad Shaik (Secretary), Narayanan Mudaliar (Technical Director) and Ajay Arora (Treasurer) did the in-depth planning of the event, choosing the right Venue and hotel at same convenient location. Organizers provided breakfast, lunch, and dinner for every day of the event.

Organizers also thanked past President of US Carrom Association Jaydev Suryadevara, for his new innovative product ‘CARROM NETS’, to improve carrom strokes, the press release said.

For the first time in a Carrom event, the registration, match schedules, scores update, notifications and results were all digitally made available via WHATSSCORE Mobile App organizers said.

A new format was introduced for the first time in NEUSCA competition – Six Rounds of SRR (Swiss Round Robin) in open singles, with each round played for maximum of 35 minutes (total 8 boards in each round ); in the doubles, 5 Rounds of SRR with each round maximum of 35 minutes ( total 6 boards in each round); Team championship was added for the first time and this was  liked by all the players as the team formation was randomly picked at the venue.

Equal opportunity was given to ensure maximum people spend their full time playing carrom by providing more groups amongst the top ranked players post SRR rounds. Games were organized in the categories – Champions, Challengers, Aspirants, and Enthusiast groups.

President of U.S. Carrom Association, USCA, Bala Parthasarathy addressed the participants through a video message to inspire the players with his vision and guidance, the press release said.

The Best New Player award was won by Razeen Rafedeen, who was presented with a new carrom board.

Special mention was made for slammers during the event —  two White Slam by Local Hero Sandeep Dusa and one by Louis Fernandes from Canada. A White Slam is like a century in Cricket.

Fernandes, the reigning Singles Champion was indisposed during Doubles play and conceded the match in doubles and later could not play the Singles finals as well. That resulted in Ajay Arora becoming the Singles winner by default.

It was unfortunate that the live streaming of finals with commentary could not take place, organizers said.

NEUSCA Tournament results are as follows:

Champions Group – Singles: Winner – Ajay Arora; Runner-Up – Louis Fernandes

Challengers Group – Singles: Winner – Sandeep Dusa; Runner-Up – Ranjit Sapre

Aspirants Group – Singles: Winner – Govi Sriram; Runner-Up – Chakradhar Pillala

Enthusiasts Group – Singles: Winner – Achuta Rayaprolu; Runner-Up – Fazlur Rahman

Champions Group – Doubles: Winners – Ishan Rizvi and Ranjit Sapre; Runners-Up – Louis Fernandes and Shekhar Challa

Challengers Group – Doubles: Winners – Neel Joshi and Anurag Gupta; Runners–Up – Umakanth Pandurangiah and Hari Venkatesan

Team Championship Results: Winner – New Jersey – Team members – Viral Parmar, Ranjit Sapre,Kavitha Mangalampalli, Achyuta Rayaprolu, and Samir Agte

Runners-Up – Delaware — Team members – Sandeep Dusa, Atul Bhave, Sabari Shankar, Rizwan Noor, and Rinku Singh