KARACHI - National Carrom Championship will be held here in Karachi from April 15, Pakistan Carrom Federation (PCF) announced on Sunday. The holding of the competition will be mark the twentieth Anniversary of formation of International Carrom Federation. Players of all ages are entitled to take part in the singles and doubles event and April 11 is fixed as the last date for the event.

The men’s Carrom team from Sri Lanka struck gold at the 5th World Carrom Championships which was recently held in Cannes, France when they beat the ‘cat’s whiskers’ of World Carrom; India 2-1 in the Men’s Team event.

This was the first World Championship that was conducted in Europe, while two of the previous championships were held in India and Sri Lanka played host for the other two.

In the Women’s Team event, Sri Lanka had to settle for the silver when India made a clean 3-0 sweep. In the men’s doubles, India took the gold beating Sri Lanka who had to settle for the silver medal.

The Carrom Federation that was formed in 1958, with assistance from well wishers and players has produced slicers of world class since 1970, celebrated its 50th anniversary recently. In 1991, the First World Championship was conducted in New Delhi, India, the second in Sri Lanka in 1995. For the third in 2000 it was back again to New Delhi and in 2004 once again in Colombo. However, this was the first time the championship was organized in a European country. In the four earlier championships, Sri Lanka had to settle for the runners-up position in both men’s and women’s categories. The winning of the men’s team event at the 5th World Championship was an unique feat for Sri Lanka Carrom that has weathered many a storm during it 50 years of existence. In the women’s category, Sri Lanka were the runners-ups.

The men’s team comprised of Nishantha Fernando, Chamil Cooray, Germain Gunawardena and Viraj Fernando. While Udeshika Kumari, Amitha Wickramasinghe and Yasika Rahubaddha represented the women’s team. Langley Mathiasz accompanied the team as captain cum manager and Rohini Mathiasz was the chief referee. “The whole team has to be commended for their feat and their names will be etched in gold in the history of Sri Lanka Carrom as giant killers who humbled the world giants India,” said Langley Mathiasz.

Followed by Shahrukh Khan’s hockey mania in “Chak De! India” and John Abraham donning the mettle of a football pro in the expected release “Goal”, it is time Carrom takes on the colors through the “Rang De Basanti” fame Siddharth as a Carrom pro.

Chand Arora’s 3rd film is what the Carrom the game is waiting for. “Striker”, as the movie is titled, the film is donned by Siddharth, and his character will be based on the life of a real-life Carrom whiz reigning from the slums of Malavni named Suryakant.

Horning his new found craze in Carrom, Siddharth has become an expert in the game. By the time the movie hits the floors in December, Siddharth will be urging to challenge even the best in the field. He has been frequenting his visits to meet the real-life Suryakant, and to get the feel of the place, he is also spending a lot of time amidst the locations of Malavni. Reigning from Chennai, his career has been widespread all over Delhi to Mumbai. So Hindi is never an issue for the well tuned gentlemen,” Arora said.

The director prospers with his earlier mainstreams of “Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon” and “Main Meri Patni Aur Woh”. Hoping the Combo of Siddharth-Arora will carry the game of Carrom an urging and a long awaited stardom.

CHENNAI, India - I.Ilavazhagi, 24-year-old, is the world’s new Carrom champion from India, was crowned at the Chennai Airport last Friday by the Chennai District Carrom Association. She was also given a bouquet by the Chennai District Carrom Association officials, led by the association’s President Mr. Bangaru Babu. When speaking on the occasion, Ilavazhagi said; “I feel very happy because the reception we got for this was fantastic. It was much better than what we received when I won the Asia Cup, the SAARC Cup and the World Cup. My ambition is to consistently perform well and win the Nationals many more times.”

The Indian Carrom team with 16 members has left to Cannes, France this Tuesday to participate in the 5th World Carrom Championship which is a five day event. The team includes world champion R M Shankara, world number two R Aeokia Raj, M Nataraj, Sandeep Deorukhkar, Yogesh Pardesi, D Kubendra Babu, Jitendra Kale and Prakash Gaikwad will represent the country in men’s section. The women competitors from the Indian team include I Illavazhaki, Rashmi Kumari, P Nirmala, Kavita Somanchi, G Revathi, Anuraju, Anupama Kedar and Sangeeta Chandorkar.

Chennai, India: After 32 years of gap, the city of Chennai in Tamil Nadu, will play host to the senior National and inter-State Carrom championship which will be held from February 2 to 7 at the Nehru Indoor Stadium. This event is being held as part of the Silver Jubilee Celebrations of the Chennai District Carrom Association. About 600 players from 17 institutions and 30 state units are likely to take part in this championship. Prizes worth nearly $10,150 (4,00,000 INR) will be given away! All arrangements have been made to have matches on 60 boards, according to organizing Secretary G. Vijayaraj. He also said that the competitions to be held are inter-State team championships for (both men and women), inter-institution team championships (for men and women), men and women’s singles as also for veterans (men and women) singles. Last year, the Carrom championship was held in Kolkata (Calcutta) where the Chennai city’s player B. Radhakrishnan won the men’s title and Reshma Kumari from Bihar won the women’s. The state of Tamil Nadu won the men’s team title and Maharashtra the women’s event.

The 5th World Carrom Championship 2008 is to be held at Palais Des Festivals, Cannes, France; from 13th to 17th of February 08. The event is been organized by the French Carrom Federation under the authority granted by the International Carrom Federation (ICF). According to the Secretary General of ICF, an official invitation and the prospectus of this prestigious championship has been sent to the concern participants. The International Carrom Federation said that they will make sure this event will be a great landmark in the history of ICF, which will be celebration its 20th anniversary and the French Carrom Federation will be marking its 10th anniversary of their foundation.

Ayesha Sajid, 24 year old, India’s number 3 carrom player, who had was struggling to get sponsors, which would now allow her to fly to Kuala Lumpur for the Malaysian International Open mid this November. The help was offered by Basant Kumar Birla from Kolkata in West Bengal. Now Ayesha is busy getting her visa and passport ready to fly to Malaysia.

Mapusa, Oct 09: Karnataka and Orissa men and women had a good day two, when they won their own matches in the team finals in the 7th all India Carom tournament, held at Peddem ground, Mapusa. In the men’s team championship, Karnataka had an easy outing when they won their carom matches in the second and third round blanking Bihar and Uttar Pradesh (e) by 3-0.

Orissa too won with no trouble beating Himachal Pradesh and North East in their round two and three match correspondingly. In the women’s team finals, shielding champion Assam got off to a flying begin when they beat Madhya Pradeshand tamil nadu without any fight winning 3-0 each in the round two and three respectively.