Willow Mania

‘’Till the full stop doesn’t come, the sentence is not complete’

Mahendra Singh Dhoni –

 

[dropcap type=”default”]R[/dropcap]otaract Club of Achievers Lanka Business School for the year 2018/19 paid off successfully in terms of International Service Avenue. As such the year 2019/20 for Rotaract Club of Achievers Lanka Business School has started the journey with the hopes of great success in the International Service Avenue with a set of immersive projects upcoming.

As the quote above mentions, there is no end in educating oneself and also learning about facts which people would love to know and some might not be interested. But apart from that, educating yourself with all kind of facts also makes someone special. Similarly where CRICKET is the second most popular game in the world, and it is important in knowing the facts about cricket. Project ‘’WILLOW MANIA” is the first International Service project for the year 2019/20 to make an understand how important cricket is to many societies by making the club members more enthusiastic about the field they love and also to the members who are not aware to become one.

Project ‘WILLOW MANIA’ was organized on 15^th of August 2019 after the joint meeting with the Rotaract Club of Informatics Institute of Technology (RACIIT). So, we had higher participation from the RACIIT which gave a huge contribution to our project. The project had a unique way of professionalism in order to keep the momentum of the game flowing, by providing each team with a buzzer (rarely worked) option in terms of ‘First come first served’ basis to answer the questions. Which also made the game more interesting and enjoyable to all the fellow rotaractors.

The project was organized by our International Service Directors Rtr. Rahul Jeyanthan and Rtr. Kalani Siriwardhana. Where Rtr. Rahul Jeyanthan host the event, while the Professional Development Director Rtr. Suwithi Karunasekara was assigned as the Scorekeeper. All the members in the room were split into 3 teams as (Team A, Team B, and Team C) where each team consisted of 15-18 members from both the Rotaract Club of Achievers and IIT. Coincidently both the presidents of RAC IIT and RAC Achievers were split into two different teams, where both were acting like a normal participant for the time being for the fun of it in the game.

The quiz was divided into 3 different rounds. Which is a Test match round, T20 and One Day International Domestic round and the final round was the World Cup round. Where each round consists of 11 questions and the points were scored as 0 hints – 6 runs, 1 hint – 4 runs, 2 hints – 2 runs. If a team gives an incorrect answer another team will get the chance to get the opportunity and will be given half the allocated points per questions. If the 1^st answer gets wrong Rtr. Rahul will give the first hint, where if a team comes with a correct answer after the 1^st hint, they will be given 4 runs. And if the 2^nd answer also goes wrong Rtr. Rahul will be providing a second hint and where if a team comes with a correct answer after the 2^nd hint, they will be given 2 runs (I know right!, a bit confusing). As usual, the team with the highest runs wins the match.

At the end of the Test match round (1^st round) Team A scored 8 runs, Team B scored 13 runs and Team C scored 17 runs and the Team C were leading. And at the end of the T20 and One Day International Domestic round (2^nd round) Team A scored 25 runs, Team B scored 50 runs and Team C scored 55 runs and still retained leading. And before the last question of the Quiz, Team B was 62 runs and Team C was 62 runs and it was a similar situation like the World Cup 2019 final, where even they ended up scoring the same and they were supposed to play a super-over match in order to select the Champions of the World Cup 2019. As such the Willow Mania Quiz became such a situation where the last question will decide the Champion of the Willow Mania. And all 3 teams were so excited to press the buzzer to answer 1^st. And the Team B pressed the buzzer 1^st but was not been able to give the correct answer. So, team C grabbed the opportunity and came up with the right answer and became the champions of Willow Mania by scoring 66 runs at the end of the day.

In between when the game was flowing, the irritating part for our own Professor IS Director Rtr. Rahul Jeyanathan was even before he asked the question the buzzer was pressed. And the most noticeable part is the buzzer was kept pressing by the same team and by the same person over and over again. At one-point Professor Rtr. Rahul got tempered and wanted that particular team to answer without knowing the question as they were repeatedly doing the same mistake, which also made the event more exciting and entertaining.

Victory or defeat, after all, it’s all about learning and getting to know the facts. And all the teams, both the Rotaract Clubs of Achievers and IIT have fully enjoyed the event and showed their best fellowship by cheering and congratulating the winning team as well. At the end of the day, the project greater than expected by an immense number of participants by both the Rotaract Clubs and each person leaving the room while knowing a little bit more than they knew about the great game of CRICKET.

Rtr. Rishad Mohiyade