THE inaugural world cup of a new sport kicked off in breathtaking fashion – and several Calderdale players were at the centre of the action.Rock-it ball, a sort of cross between lacrosse, dodge ball and hockey, has grown massively since its invention in 2005 and is now played in more than 2,000 schools.

Halifax Evening Courier June 8th 2007 

Halifax Has World Stars

Halifax Evening Courier

June 8th 2007

THE inaugural world cup of a new sport kicked off in breathtaking fashion – and several Calderdale players were at the centre of the action.

Rock-it ball, a sort of cross between lacrosse, dodge ball and hockey, has grown massively since its invention in 2005 and is now played in more than 2,000 schools.

 And at the first world cup, held to raise the game's profile, almost the entire India team was made up of players from Halifax. Praveen Bhujabe, of Princess Terrace, competed after being introduced to the sport only four months ago through colleagues.  He said: "It's exciting to be a part of it because there's a feeling the sport could really go on to become a massive thing, bigger maybe than cricket." The tournament was held in Thornaby, near Middlesbrough, and was won by Scotland. Other teams were England and Pakistan.

Keith Chegwin hosted the event.

Mr Bhujabe, 30, added: "We didn't do as well as we might have done because we're all quite inexperienced and a bit naive when it comes to tactics but it was a great day anyway."

The game involves using rock-its – paddle shaped rackets – to launch sponge balls at the opposition. A strike wins a point.

Paul Law, one of the game's founders, said: "It was fantastic to see so many people there and see them on the edge of their seats and so excited by the game." Other players competing from Halifax were Balamurugan Kailasam, H. D. Manjunath, Srisha Nagaraja, Faisal Mehmood, Narayan Sharma, Vetrivel Kumarasamy, Shakul Meera, Kumar Ranganathan, Ramkumar Jagadeeswaran and Kumar Sivaraman.