In a bid to promote sports among the youth of strife-torn Union Territory, Jammu and Kashmir Police has launched a cricket league in Handwara district of North Kashmir. Branded as ‘Handwara Police Cricket League’, the event was organized by the state police in order to motivate the players to improve and elevate their skills.

“By organizing such event, our effort is to bridge the gap between the people and police of the state and also that the public and the police work together as one,” said Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police, Dilbagh Singh.

In this tournament, “32 cricket teams involving more than 450 players of Handwara are given the opportunity to display their talent in the tournament that is being played on a knock-out basis. The teams have been divided into four pools,” Singh informed while adding “We have many more programs lined up, one will get to see such events in the coming days.”

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‘Getting good response’

He said that the police department here has been always looking to hold positive activities but because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the plan had to be curtailed. “But after the relaxation of COVID protocols, we tried to take cricket league to different districts of the Valley and fortunately we are getting a good response too.”

A group of locals present in the stadium observed that such sports activities or events always help youths to come out from mental stress that some are experiencing due to the pandemic crisis. “We (sports lovers) are demanding that such sports events should be continued in the future at a large scale,” they said.

Pertinently, former Indian cricketer, Suresh Raina will soon set up a cricket academy in Jammu and Kashmir to draw aspiring and young cricketers from remote areas of the Valley.

On the request of the Lt Governor Manoj Sinha, Raina agreed to set up five schools in the Kashmir division and an equal number in the Jammu division to train aspiring cricketers.

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