Four players and one coach from Odisha were selected to represent India in the upcoming Asia Pacific Unified Cricket Tournament, scheduled to be held at Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh from December 1 to 4, 2017. The four Odisha players are: Pravat Baral, Sashikant Sethi, Purna Chandra Jena (all Puri) and David Sahoo (Jharsuguda).

Pravat Baral will lead the Indian team and this will be his third successive participation in Asia Pacific Unified Cricket Tournament. Altogether five nations would compete in this tournament. Other four countries are: Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. Bibekananda Mohanty of Cuttack has been selected as one of the three coaches of the Indian team.

Prakash Rath, Area Director, Special Olympics Bharat-Odisha has been selected as the head of the Indian delegation. Rath was also the head of delegation of India in the inaugural tournament held at Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2014, where India B became champions.

The four Odisha players were selected from national coaching-cum-selection camp which was held for men’s unified cricket and for women’s football, under the aegis of Special Olympics Bharat at East Coast Railway Stadium and Biju Patnaik Sports Complex (Vani Vihar), Bhubaneswar from November 17 to 21, 2017. Nearly 150 athletes, partners, coaches and officials from 13 states participated in the event.

The national coaching-cum-selection camp was conducted by Arpita Mohapatra, Sasmita Mohapatra, Jhasketan Pradhan, Geeta Panda, Kalandi Bhoi, Trinath Samal and Bibekananda Mohanty of Odisha along with coaches and officials of other states. The logistics was managed by the trainees of Open Learning Systems under the able leadership of Umesh Chandra Mohapatra, Sports Director of Special Olympics Bharat-Odisha.