We are group of professionals and ex cricketers, who have taken upon themselves responsibility of developing competitive cricket for veterans in India. Our organisation Veterans India Cricket Foundation (known as VCI) is registered as non-profit making organisation.
Our interest is in developing veteran's cricket in India and to facilitate overseas people of Indian origin to get involved and be part of the mission.
Veteran's (50 + and 60+) cricket is very well structured in many countries across the world. They have well established national level tournaments. In England there is national championship (inter county) for over 50's going on since 1984. England and Australia over 50s/60s cricket teams have been playing veterans Ashes series for some time.
In 2018 first ever Cricket world cup for 50+ was organised in Sydney Australia. The organising committee invited all cricket playing nations and there were 8 teams who responded and participated but no response or participation from India. Similar efforts were made by the WC committee for 2020 World Cup in Cape town SA but they didn't get any response from India. This is mainly because we haven't got a structure in place for our veterans in India.
At this stage group of people of Indian origin based outside India took interest and tracked Indians who are actively playing competitive cricket around the world. A trial was held in Mumbai in December 2019 and a team was sent to Cape Town for 2020 World Cup. All players paid for themselves. Unfortunately, tournament got postponed after couple of matches due to COVID19.Both events were not ICC recognised but participation included approx. 20 ex international and about 50 ex first class players in Cape Town.
All the information about over 50s world cup is available on their main website: https://www.over50scricket.com/
