The Bangalore Turf Club (BTC) T10 cricket tournament  has garnered good response in the horse racing circles. The reigning champs, the Jockeys XI are again fancied to emerge champs taking into account that most of the saddle artistes are fit and ready to do battle against the Trainers/Owners team and the Members XI led by Nikhil Yathiraj. The skipper of the members’ team disclosed that a couple of key players from his side are not available for selection, travelling on business commitments. “We will definitely miss star performer Udit Patel and the Rajus, but I’m confident that the others will put their hand up and  perform to the best of their ability,” said Nikhil, while playing a practice game against the BTC Staff side at the BARI ground on Sunday.

Leading  saddle  artiste Trevor Patel is chosen to guide the fortunes of the Jockeys’ team, who will start favourites again to record a hat-trick in this popular annual bash on Tuesday, Feb 13. The organising committee of the tournament spearheaded by BTC committee member Dayanand Mandre has done well to rope in a couple of sponsors for the run and fun under the sun event.

“Well the racing pros, the club members and horse owners love to get on the field and give it a shot with both bat and ball each year and we (BTC) from our end facilitate them to take a break from their sport and parade their skills in a new avatar,” said Dayanand.

The Jockeys,  it must be mentioned looked fit and ready to do battle, a good number of fast bowlers under their wings hitting the right areas in a practice session.

A good and passionate cricketer, Arun Kumar will lead the Owners and Trainers team and with little help from Kishan Thomas, his deputy and Neil Darashah, who can single handedly win the championship pose a big challenge to the Jockeys.

The Tornadoes XI comprising BTC staff is led by Sanketh and the new entrants are raring to go and make their presence felt in the big bash.