Sharjah: Desert Cubs Cricket Academy, in a bid to unearth young talent, staged two age-group tournaments for budding cricketers over six weeks recently.
Over 350 children competed in Desert Cubs Challenges Cup for Under-11 and Under-13. Speaking to Gulf News, Presley Polonnowita, the Head Coach of the Desert Cubs Cricket Academy said: “We wanted to stage a very big tournament with maximum participation and we are happy we could do it. This tournament ran for almost 40 days, spread across Desert Cubs’ three activity centers at the Dubai College (DC), Deira International School (D.I.S) and the Sharjah English School (S.E.S). We could not only give exposure to these children but also unearthed a few talented players.”
This academy has close to 750 members registered for cricket training.
The finals of the tournament was held at the Sharjah English School in front of a large gathering which included parents of the participants.
“The junior cubs from the three centers were divided into several well matched teams . They played 35 overs-a-side hard fought matches. We made sure the matches were played on grass grounds and astro turf wickets. The matches were also officiated by Emirates Cricket Board certified umpires and scorers,” added Polonnowita.
The team of academy’s mentors led by Polonnowita with K.G. Priyantha at the Dubai College and Anoj Silva at the D.I.S and Basil Jayawardena - the coach in charge of the S.E.S center along with the respective squad coaches had worked to ensure the success of the tournament.
“It is through such tournaments and exposure that six of our boys which includes under 19 captain Waruna Perera have been recognised as junior UAE internationals. Five girls from this academy are part of the UAE‘s national women’s team which won the GCC Cup in Kuwait recently. Winning the event was not the priority but finding many good players,” said Polonnowita.
