Doctors to bat it out on the OPL 20-20 pitch

[sajiv]

Doctors to bat it out on the OPL 20-20 pitch

CHENNAI: What if the IPL has moved out of India? Doctors from across the country have decided to play OPL on home turf. Only this 20-20 will not be held under the scorching sun on a cricket field, but in the air-conditioned ballroom of Taj Coromandel.

The OPL (Opthalmic Premier League) 20-20, scheduled for July 12, will be part of the two-day Indian Intraocular Implant and Refractive Surgery Convention conducted by Intraocular Implant and Refractive Society, India.

The 'game' will have four teams – Ahmedabad Acrylics, Mumbai Multifocals, Chennai Capsules and Delhi Divide and Conquer – of four players each. Each player, an ophthalmic surgeon, will get four minutes to present the best cases and the most difficult cases he/she had handled. After the 16-minute presentation will come a four-minute Q&A session.

"In all it's a competition in which every team gets 20 minutes. So, we decided to call this 20-20. Also, 20-20 is considered the perfect vision," said Dr Amar Agarwal, chairman, scientific committee, Intraocular Implant and Refractive Society of India. Ahmedabad-based Dr P N Nagpal, founder and medical director of Retina Foundation, has been designated the umpire, while Chennai-based eye specialist and chairman of Agarwal Eye Hospital Dr J Agarwal will be the match referee.

The audience, all of whom would be eye specialists, will be given voting pads to choose the winning team and the 'doctor of the match.' "It was held last year with the launch of the IPL and was a huge success. This time it will be a tougher competition," said Dr Agarwal.

"We thought up this innovative game to make the conference more interesting. Competitions are healthy and pep up the proceedings," said Dr Agarwal.

While the conference would have distinguished doctors from across the country to speak on the advances in ophthalmic surgeries with highlights, OPL 20-20 will be a second-day event.