Press ReleaseHarmony Cup Cricket Sixes Macau, 2007
Harmony Cup Cricket Sixes 2007 was held on 24 December, 2007 at Hou Kong Middle School's Football Ground in Macau. Mr. Jose Pereira Coutinho, President of Macau Civil Servants Association and Deputy, Legislative Assembly of Macau S.A.R was the Guest of Honor. Award presentation ceremony was held at 5:00pm. Mr. Coutinho presented the winning trophy to the Captain of "Magnificent Macau" Mr. Shahid Ahmed (Rui). First runner-up trophy was awarded to the Captain of "Sri Lankan Stars" Mr. Munir, second runner-up award was received by the Captain of "Macau Knights" Mr. Amanat Ali Butt. Fourth position award was received by the Captain of "Macau 6ixers" Mr. Salman Saeed.
It was the first time in the history of Macau that a cricket competition was held among the local teams of Macau. Four Cricket teams joined the competition. Harmony Cup Softball Cricket Sixes was a joint effort of Macau Cricketers. Sixes is a new form of quick cricket. It is getting popular due to its fast pace of exciting matches with limited number of players (six players each team) and six overs (six ball each over) match.
Organizer Mr. Adnan Nasim explained that the idea of harmony cup is to promote harmony and peace in Macau. Harmony Cup was held as a celebration of two religious festivals of two religions, Islam and Christianity as a show of Harmony and Peace. Eid-ul-Azha (Eid-Ul-Azha known as the Festival of Sacrifice) was celebrated in Macau on 21 December, 2007 by the Muslim community of Macau. Harmony Cup is an effort to bring people of different faith, religions and cultures together as a show of harmony in Macau. This event witnessed the diversity and harmony at Hou Kong Football ground when cricket loving audience of different religions and nationality came to enjoy an exciting day out.
Guest of honor Mr. Coutinho addressed the players, thanked them and the organizers for organizing such an exciting and meaningful event in Macau. He also thanked them for promoting the game of cricket in Macau. Slogan of Harmony Cup was "Celebrating Eid (Muslim Festival) and Christmas, Promoting Peace, Promoting Harmony". Mr. Coutinho praised the finalists for their high standard of cricket. Mr. Coutinho mentioned that the most exciting part of the tournament were when he saw batsman hitting sixes (hitting the ball out of the ground similar to home-run in Baseball), he also admired bowlers when they clean-bold (hit the ball to the stumps making the batsman out). Mr. Continho wishes all the players, organizers and audience Merry Christmas and Happy Eid at the end of the ceremony.
