DUBAI Budding cricketers in the UAE have limited options when they look for exposure tours against quality overseas teams. Barring a few tours in a year where youngsters get to travel to countries like India, Sri Lanka and the UK, it’s still not sufficient.
Maxtalent Global Sports (MGS) is hoping to change all that by planning to start around 15 academies in India, which houses some of the best cricket training centres.
It’s taken the first step by launching their first full-fledged academy in Mumbai. “We just started one last week in Mumbai and that’s the start of a huge project,” said Sudhakar Shetty, Managing director of MGS, from Mumbai.
“We plan to have another three in Mumbai alone by the end of this year and one in Hyderabad in March and another in Mangalore next month. But our larger goal is to have at least 15 academies by the end of 2015,” he added.
Maxtalent has a strong presence in the UAE with its academies spread across most of the Emirates. The Academy is also known for conducting the inter-school and university tournaments which have always been well attended.
“Our boys in the UAE will get a great opportunity to rub shoulders with their counterparts in India, which can be a huge learning experience.
stepping stone
“We will also ensure the boys in the UAE, if they are performing exceptionally well, can move to India and continue to play in our academies and participate in the prestigious local tournaments after they clear a few parameters. This can be a big stepping stone for them,” Shetty said.
He further added the boys in their Indian academies will also have a great chance to tour the UAE and get to see some of the fine facilities. “We can arrange frequent tours for the boys in India which can be of mutual benefit for both the countries,” he said.
But the bigger plan in the pipeline is organising the inter-Maxway tournament that will help them showcase their talent. “Our new premises is getting ready in Thane, India. Once it is operational, we plan to have the tournament exclusively for Maxtalent academies. That will bring all our boys to one destination.
“We also have our partners in the UK and South Africa and those teams will also join us,” he said.
Cricket Maxway had held a camp for the under-privileged in Mumbai last year and due to the amazing response this idea took shape. “We received over 60 students and then realised the importance of spreading our wings to India. As a commitment to development of cricket, our new facility will train around 25 adivasi (tribals) free of cost and also support their education.”
