Car Nicobar, March 15: The Subroto Mukerjee Sports Education Society has conferred the Outstanding Player award to Kumari Sonal Devi, the Captain of the Lapathy School team, for her brilliant performance in the last Subroto Cup Football Tournament held at Dr. B.R Ambedkar Stadium New Delhi last year.  The award includes one-time grant Scholarship of Rs. Ten Thousands also. The school had received this intimation and Cheque from the Society recently.

Last year the team of Govt. Senior Secondary School Lapathy, Car Nicobar was chosen to represent these Islands in the National Subroto Mukerjee Cup School under-17 Girls Tournament. The Selection committee found some extra ordinary sporting skills in Somal and gave her the task of leading the team as Captain. Though the girls were very inexperienced of playing big matches yet they showed the determination to performing to the expectation in the Country’s most prestigious school tournament.

The team had to play the first match against Haryana in which the Islands girls showed their footballing skills to perfection to get applauded, despite the defeat. Later the performance of the team got better and better in the next league matches. A team comprising the best players of yesteryears watched every match of the Premier League to select the best players. The team of experts found the Captain of the Andaman Nicobar team Somal Devi, the one of the best among the lot to be chosen for the Scholarship.

Talking to this reporter, Somal said that the team has gained good experience of playing against the best players of the country in the Subroto Mukerjee Cup, and definitely this experience will be useful in the future. She hoped that the girls will get more opportunities to have specialized training and to play such big tournaments. A close friend of the Island’s National Star Cyclist Deborah, Somal said that she too wants to represent the country and bring laurels like her.

Meanwhile the Principal, Staff and Students of Govt. Senior Secondary School Lapathy have congratulated Somal on this achievement. The Principal Shri Abdul Rehman said that the Scholarship awarded to Somal will inspire other students as well, to excel in the field of Sports.