MUMBAI: On Wednesday, the Mumbai Indians seemed to be in a buoyant mood. Not just because of their win against Royal Challengers Bangalore a night ago, but also since they joined the two finalist NGO teams for the ‘Reliance Foundation Education and Sports for All (ESA)’ cricket final at the Wankhede Stadium.
Reliance Foundation and Mumbai Indians had hosted a 16-team box cricket tournament in Mumbai for the underprivileged children from 8 participating NGOs, the final of which was played today at the defending champions home ground.
Cheered on by 1,000 underprivileged children in the gallery, captain Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah and Lasith Malinga took turns to bat and bowl for the two finalist teams Aseema and Shishu Vikas, while coach Mahela Jayawardene wore the umpire hat.
As a part of Reliance Foundation’s Education and Sports for All initiative, Mumbai Indians had recently hosted over 21,000 children from various NGOs across Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai for their match against Delhi Daredevils, providing the underprivileged children with a life-time experience.
Mumbai Indians has been renowned to support education for under privileged children through the Education for Education For All (EFA) initiative since 2010. This year EFA has evolved to Education and Sports for All (ESA), under the umbrella of Reliance Foundation, combining its focus areas of education and sports for development.
The ESA initiative seeks to provide holistic development through focus on education and sports and to enhance the quality of the sporting ecosystem by providing facilities, training, infrastructure, and equipment across multiple sporting properties through the year. Cumulatively, the programme has reached out to over 13 million children.
