With more than 50 teams, the revived Nowroze Baug All Parsis Tournament saw over 300 players participate in the games organized in April 2025. These included direct volleyball, indirect volleyball (direct focuses on quick, aggressive plays, aiming to end rallies quickly with powerful attacks; indirect emphasizes patient, methodical play, often using sets and shifts to create opportunities), throwball, sepak (combines elements of volleyball and football, challenging players to use their feet, knees, shoulders, chest and head to control the ball) and 3v3 penalty shootout (football).
"This year marked a new chapter as the tournament was jointly organized by the Nowroze Baug Play Centre and the N. N. Wadia Welfare League, now on the path to merging as one united association, the Nowroze Baug Play Centre and Welfare League,” noted a write-up by Delaveen Tarapore Mistry. As commented Play Centre vice president Firdosh Khambatta, "The energy was unbelievable. It felt like a festival, not just a tournament.”
Top: winners and participants at the Nowroze Baug All Parsis Tournament;
2nd row, l: Godrej Baug-A team, sepak winners with Freddy Nariman (standing far r);
Marzban Colony-A team, direct volleyball winners
Photos: Kaizad Chinoy, Meher Studios
The maximum number of 15 teams had registered for sepak that saw Godrej Baug-A team emerge as winners with the CJ Colony-Team Tiger being the runners-up. In direct volleyball where 14 teams participated, the Marzban Colony-A team were the winners with the CJ Colony being runners-up. In indirect volleyball that had 12 teams participating, the CJ Colony-A team were the winners with Nowroze Baug-A team being the runners-up. The throwball tournament that had six teams saw Malcolm Baug-A team emerge as winners. In fact the CJ Colony-Team Tiger made history by reaching the finals of all the four major formats. In the 3v3 penalty shootout, Nowroze Baug-C team were the winners with the Sir Ness Wadia Memorial Pavilion team being the runners-up.
Chief guest at the prize distribution function on April 26, Freddy Nariman who had played for the Mumbai under-18 and all Parsis volleyball teams in his younger days and is now a senior vice president at HSBC, lauded the sportsmanship of the participants. The organizations and individuals that had sponsored this meet were Zoroastrian Bank, True Diamond, Football Knowledge Sharing Academy, Nariman Sports, Shaman Triumph — South Mumbai, Parsi Junction, Ru-Sano Tours and Travels, Dinshaw Tamboly of the WZO (World Zoroastrian Organisation) Trust Funds, and Dinshaw and Viraf Mehta.