GIIS Global Twenty/20 Cricket Tournament at East Coast Singapore, has been a memorable experience for GIIS India Team comprising students from Noida, Indore, Surat, Bangalore, Chinchwad and Ahmedabad campuses.

It was a rare opportunity provided by GIIS India for its students to play cricket across the seven seas with nationally rated players from GIIS East Coast, Queenstown and Malaysia Campuses. The excitement of GIIS India team was paramount as they geared up for their first International cricketing experience although most players appeared young and unexperienced. The players met each other for the first time during their Inter-GIIS Cricket Tournament 2015-16, held at GIIS Surat. Under the circumstances Ms. Vaishali Borde, National Head for Co-Scholastic and Mr. Caesar D’Silva, Principal, GIIS Ahmedabad; who accompanied the children to Singapore had many apprehensions if the India team could perform well overseas. Therefore, some strategies were discussed to boost the morale of the children during the journey from Surat to Mumbai airport and then through the Singapore flight. Children got ample time to make friends and interact with each other.

The children were amazed to see the vast cricket and football grounds among other amenities during their visit to East coast Campus for the first day’s practice.

Facing the first match against mighty East Coast Team was a challenging experience for the students. East Coast obviously won the first match but the morale of India team did not deter to fight against another mighty Malaysia Team in the second match. The Malaysia team challenged GIIS India Team with 143 runs in 20 overs. Chasing a huge target Team India started batting like run machines with a strong determination and no one could stop them from winning by crossing 146 runs in just 18 overs. The audience cheered enthusiastically, amazed at the youngest team performing with unbelievable superior knocks of sixes and fours.

Yash Desai and Aryan Singh won the ‘Man of the Match’ awards. Yash also won the award for maximum sixes hit in the tournament. Although some Indian team members played with the leather ball for the first time, it was a pleasant sight to see the young cricketers perform with exceptional command over the game. The third match against Queenstown was evenly poised. An excellent team work and perfect co-ordination between the Indian team players was clearly visible. Though, Queenstown being the senior team won the match with a few balls to spare, team India gave a tough fight to the finish with crowd cheering for the superb sportsmanship shown by these players.

Besides Cricket, children enjoyed post lunch sight-seeing visits planned for them. They loved some exciting places they visited such as Sentosa, Gardens by the Bay, the mesmerising ‘Wings of Time’ show, Dolphin show, a guided city tour exploring wonderful landscapes of Singapore besides savouring the delicious Singapore Cuisine, shopping for chocolates and mementoes and much more.

The memories of Singapore visit remains striking and vivid. According to, Principal Caesar D’Silva, the takeaways besides the exposure to international cricket were; the values, team spirit, being self-reliant, the etiquettes & discipline of Singapore citizens, cleanliness & aesthetic beauty that make Singapore one of the best countries among other nations and much more.

GIIS East Coast had won over the hearts of all the players by organising a wonderful cricket match, being perfect hosts and winning in style. GIIS Team India looks forward to the next T/20 tournament and is all set to win more matches in the coming future.