The Final Verdict: YOU’RE OUT? Lawyers ‘Argue’ and ‘Clash’ at 8 {Mangalore Bar Association} MBA Cricket Premier League
Mangaluru: If you don’t happen to see lawyers/Advocates/Vakilaru-whatever names they go by, at the Court {although it is a holiday today} or at their Offices, the reason behind it is that a bunch of them have taken a day off to be at the Nehru Maidan-Mangaluru to participate in the Annual Sports Day 2018 on Thursday, 29 March 2018, and Cricket Match being one of the sporting events. The judges, known for umpiring between warring lawyers in the courtroom, didn’t choose to take the advocates head-on in this cricket field, instead watched them play from far.
The {Mangalore Bar Association} MBA Cricket Premier League comprising of eight teams namely: Bar Tigers; Bar Red Bulls; Bar Challengers; Bar Devils; Bar Knight Riders; Bar Warriors; Bar Royals; and Bar Champions, were the players were all charged up as if it were an India Vs Pakistan match. As soon as the inauguration was done, the advocates pulled up their socks and made sure that they did not give away runs easily. Once the match began, many of them including exhibited some excellent legwork on the field to prevent quite a few boundaries.
Despite the heated competition, there was no dearth of humour in the match. In one instance, when the on-field umpire rejected an appeal for a wicket in the second over, the team captain waggishly sought for a reference to the third umpire though there was no such facility. It had the audience in splits. Did it seem like an argument in the courtroom? A few lawyers showed amazing partnership skills and went on to score well in five overs, but a few got stuck on for long and played some brilliant shots like it was a test match
The event was inaugurated by MLC Ivan D’souza, along with other senior lawyers namely: PP Hegde; B Ibrahim; Narayan Poojary among others. In his inaugural address, MLC Ivan said that it is nice to see that these advocates are away from their arguing spree in the courtroom, and taking it easy without any stress and indulging themselves in a fun game of cricket- and fighting in the case {game}? and bag the huge trophy-Best of luck to all of them. Advocate Raghavendra Rao, the owner of the Tigers Team said that when there are Cricket matches like IPL, we advocates thought why not have an APL {Advocates Premier League} and here we are fighting on the field, in a different manner like we fight over our case in the courtroom. {in a lighter vein}.
Apart from cricket, the Sports Day also comprised of VolleyBall, Kabbadi and Tug of War; and for Lady advocates, there was Throw Ball Match. At the Cricket match, it was not only the attempts, both successful and unsuccessful, of the Advocates to bowl the’ ball at the wickets, or the batsmen’s attempts, after the ball had been discharged by the bowler, to, punish, or, at least, to hit the ball, or some of the extraordinarily good and successful examples of fielding given by a few fielders, which delighted the spectators. Each time a. batsman went out to bat or a batsman came back to the gaily decorated Shamiana in which spectators sat, there was some loud applaud-this added to the splendour of the occasion. And, what followed the match was no less interesting and enjoyable.
And when Yours Truly was enjoying the match, one senior lawyer speaking to Team Mangalorean said that the word “cricket”, in the English language, stood for propriety, fair-play, and elegance, and that these qualities were very dear to lawyers so that a game of cricket could be considered as a particularly happy and suitable medium for expressing our joy on the occasion of the Annual Sports Day Celebrations. In the Court, just as on the cricket field, there were attempts by each side to bowl the other, to ward off the attack, and to score fairly and justly over the other. In the Court just as on the cricket field, victory, as well as defeat, had to be accepted gracefully.