Dignitaries and players together with the Kehimkar family ahead of the Benzie Kehimkar Memorial Cup © Israel Cricket Enlarge

The 2008 season officially got underway with league champions Lions Lod playing a Chairman's X1 in the Benzie Kehimkar Memorial Cup, a new fixture added to the local calendar in memory of Benzie Kehimkar. With Benzie's wife, four children and other family members present, ICA Chairman Stanley Perlman, Ashdod mayor Inge Tzvi Tzilkar and the head of the municipal sports department, Miki Rozenberg, all spoke warmly about Benzie and the legacy he left behind, before play got underway,

Lions Lod have hardly been beaten over the last decade, but, missing two key players, did come unstuck against a Chairman's XI which combined experienced players such as captain Shamu Razpurker, Adrian Vard, Jacky Divekar, Danny Malyankar and Steven Shein, along with youngsters Danny Hotz, Yaniv Razpurker, and Shmuel Moses, and Israel U17 squad members Levi Divekar, Rafi Schachat and Itamar Kehimkar, Benzie's son. Hotz (34), Vard (63) and Yaniv Razpurker (50) all made runs as the Chairman's X1 reached 256/7 in their 40 overs, to which Lions could only reply with 191. Anim Solomon enjoyed a good game with 3 for 47 and 38 runs with the bat, and Gershon Massil (40) played aggresively at the top of the order, but otherwise it was not a performance that matched Lod's normally high standards.

Itamar Kehimkar was named Player of the Match for scoring a couple of runs down the order, holding on to a sharp catch at point, executing a brilliant run out from the covers and taking a wicket. Most important of all was the spirit in which the game was played, exactly as the man in whose memorial it was held would have wanted.