The past 10 days or so at my office had almost taken me back to my college days, thanks to the SEBI Premier League. Being in the organising team of the SPL reminded me so much of how we used to conduct inter-collegiate management meets way back then. Once the idea of SEBI Premier League was conceived, all the subsequent work in terms of finalising the formats and fixtures for the various league matches, grouping the 6 teams that were in the fray, working out the logistics with the MIG Club which was the venue of the tournament, etc. followed. The kind of enthusiasm, high energy levels and spirit that I had witnessed at various levels across the organisation was something that I had not witnessed before at SEBI.
The tournament was conceived as a 3 day long sports meet across SEBI comprising of various games – Cricket, Badminton, Table Tennis and Carrom. The 6 teams – Equities, Bonds, Swaps, Futures, Options and Index – with representation from various departments – were put in 2 groups (A – Futures, Index and Option and B – Bonds, Equities and Swaps) in the league matches with the winner of one group playing against the winner of the second group.
The mood for the tournament had set in a week before the actual matches, with the poster war across the 7 floors at SEBI Bhavan. There were posters and there were counter-posters and there were counter counter posters (yes, a few attempts at sledging and taking a dig at the other teams too!!) ; of course, I must confess the walls of our office have never been more colourful and interesting before.
As for the actual matches, the ‘Futures’ hit it off from Day 1 by winning both their league matches against the ‘Index’ and ‘Options’. The ‘Swaps’ did the same on Day-2 by winning over the ‘Bonds’ and ‘Equities’ to firm up their grand finale with the ‘Futures’. The last day of the tournament that got concluded today saw some excellent cricketing action from the four teams that played today. The morning match between the Equities and Options who were both playing for the 3rd slot was won handsomely by Options. The finals between the ‘Futures’ and ‘Swaps’ was a fairly high scoring match too like some of the league matches. At the end of it, the Swaps could not defend what looked like a formidable target for the Finals – 112 in 15 overs. The ‘Futures’ team, aided by some huge hits from its top order (Sanchit and Nitin), were home effortlessly with an over to spare.
The games for the ladies (Badminton/TT/Carrom) was more or less dominated by the Swaps who had kind of swept through the matches in this segment, both in Singles as well as doubles.
Some of the key highlights of the tournament were clearly the star batsmen from some of the teams who entertained the crowd with some huge shots (Sanchit and Nitin for ‘Futures’, Sagar for ‘Options’, Peter for ‘Swaps’), some good fielding by even the not so young players, some witty and interesting commentary by Vikas and Mukul (trust him to talk about afternoon siesta of a few colleagues in the Pavilion and cricketing specifics with equal aplomb!), some of the early exit team members who were seen cheering the other teams during the finals and the ‘never-low’ enthu of our ED Mr. Vaidyanathan who made this entire event happen and saw it through smoothly.
The event ended on a positive note with all the trophies and Man of the Match/Series being given away, photograph session with the big man himself (Yes, Our Chairman and a Board Member were at the Presentation ceremony to do the honours) and promises to hold such SEBI family events more often than now – whether the promise would materialise or not is something that only time can tell. Be that as it may, what really shone through was the adage that ED(KNV) had coined for us at the event – SEBI Ka Tempo High Hai!!!
