The Food Corporation of India cricket team came close to achieve a double when they made it to the finals of the two most well-known local tournaments in Delhi recently.
They clinched the Lala Raghubir Hotweather tournament beating Telefunken Club but rain forced them to concede the Goswami Ganesh Dutt title to Sporting Cricket Club through a toss of the coin. Now, the team are targetting to do well in the BCCI Corporate Trophy and have recruited four Ranji players including Delhi pacer Parvinder Awana to strengthen their squad.
“Yes, we are trying to do well in the Corporate Trophy. We have recruited four players and are in the process of hiring some more. We have got Parvinder Awana, who made his T20 international debut recently. We have also got Himachal Pradesh’s and Kings XI Punjab’s Rishi Dhawan, Punjab’s Mayank Sidana and Umang Sharma from UP. Except Awana, all three have joined the squad,” FCI deputy general manage Amarjit Singh Kaypee told this paper on Thursday.
Kaypee, who represented Punjab and Haryana during his playing days and held the record for the highest aggregate of runs in domestic circuit for close to 10 years before Mumbai’s Amol Mazumdar broke it in 2009-10, is entrusted with bringing in new talent into the team.
Kaypee is also the secretary of FCI’s Headquarters Sports Promotion Committee and is confident that their team, despite the lack of star power, can compete against the more star-studded sides in the upcoming tournaments.
“Though we don’t have big names at the moment but we have the performers who are doing very well. For example, we beat the star-studded ONGC in the Goswami Ganesh Dutt semis,” the 52-year-old said.
Being a cricketer himself, Kaypee has suggested some changes which have worked well for the team. “It is the inclusion of some good players. We made some changes where the balance was not right like the inclusion of a couple of spinners. Basically we have tried to get rid of the weaknesses,” he added.