Cricket icons set to tee off

Legends from eight Test-playing nations, who have fired our imagination and inspired us with their feats on the cricket field, will now be engrossed in a contest, as competitive as anything they have done as professional cricketers, when they tee off for the first Signature World Cup of Golfing Cricketers, in association with Airtel and Air India, at the Karnataka Golf Association in Bangalore on Thursday.

Names like Kapil Dev, Ian Botham, Dean Jones, Gary Kirsten, Waqar Younis, Alistair Campbell, Stuart Carlisle and Jeff Dujon will be rubbing shoulders with their peers and trying to emerge champions in this innovative tournament.

There are teams from Australia, England, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, the West Indies and Zimbabwe, apart from hosts India, in the fray. The event will see 34 single-handicap golfing cricketers vie for top honours.

What adds an interesting feature is that the tournament has a day-night format, with much of the game to be played under lights that have been recently set up at the KGA course.

The KGA becomes only the third course in the country after the DLF Golf & Country Club (Gurgaon) and the Amby Valley Golf Course (Amby Valley Sahara Lake City) to offer a floodlit facility.

The first two rounds of the tournament feature a celebrity Am-Am competition, while Rounds Three and Four will determine the world's best Cricketer-Golfers' team and best individual Cricketer-Golfer in a team scramble and best ball format respectively.

Kapil Dev has already expressed the desire to win another World Cup, albeit in a separate sport.

"The memories of the World Cup victory are so vivid in my mind that I can recollect every single moment. Although this is a different ball game, it still is a World Cup. Believe me, it will be a hard-fought one," Kapil stated. "I surely want to win another World Cup."

The partners for the tournament include Indian Airlines, Swarovski, NDTV, Zee Sports, Marco Polo Travels,  DAKS and Leela Palace.

McDowell's Signature WCGC is a novel project and a brain-child of MN Chittiappa, MD, and the other directors of Wild Flower Estates and Resorts Pvt. Ltd., Kapil Dev and Pritham Basappa, Chief Executive, Organising Committee.

All team members are either former Test or One-Day International cricketers with a single digit handicap. The event will witness former cricketers and invitees from corporate India coming together to compete and revel in the most extravagant and competitive golf tournament ever in the subcontinent.