Dubai. Maxtalent Cricket Academy which has played a pivotal role in the promotion of inter-school and inter-collegiate tournaments for the last ten years honoured the players who came out of these tournaments and went on to represent the UAE in international cricket.
A colourful ceremony was organised to mark the tenth year of this academy’s effort to promote junior cricket in the UAE with UAE national team captain Amjad Javed and internationally acclaimed orthopaedic surgeon Dr George John as chief guests. Emirates Cricket Board Development Manager Andrew Russel, cricket promoters Shyam Bhatia and Mohammad Lokhandwala were also present.
Speaking to Gulf News, Sudhakar Shetty, Chief Coach of the Maxtalent Academy, who launched these tournaments, said: “We wanted to celebrate our decade long effort in promoting junior cricket through inter-school and inter-collegiate tournaments. The increase in participation reveals the growth of these tournaments over the years. When we launched the inter-school tournament in December 2006 we had just four teams. When we hosted our second inter-school event in April 2007 it increased to 12 schools and today this tournament is contested by 31 schools from all over the UAE.”
Cricketers who played in these tournaments like UAE opener Chirag Suri, UAE Under-19 captain Rohit Singh and prolific scorer Shorey Chopra received accolades for their participation in Maxtalent’s school and university tournaments. Along with the cricketers even physical education directors like Dr. Tapan Das, Ajit Singh (Indian High School, Dubai), Mohammad Shafiq and Salim Mohammad (GMA) T Ali and Vikram Dutt (DPS Sharjah) Libson Mathew and Asha Chandran (Winchester Jebel Ali), Prashant Chanda (DPS Jebel Ali) Krishnakumar (Manipal University) were honoured.
“Shorey Chopra holds the record of playing for nine years in our tournaments as he played from a young age of eight in schools cricket. Even UAE all-rounder Rohan Mustafa played for London City College in inter-collegiate cricket. Ahmad Raza who has captained UAE too played in inter-collegiate tournaments,” added Sudhakar, who launched the inter-collegiate tournament from 2007 with just six teams. Last year the participation increased to 11 college teams. Players like Jay Joshi, Keith Pinto, Saurabh Gir and Shaun Kachroo were honoured for their consistency in junior tournaments over the years.
Maxtalent had also organised junior cricket in Mumbai under Bisleri Challenge Cup. Future Indian stars Shreyas Iyer and Sarfraz Khan took part in it. Rohit Singh who captained UAE Under-19 team said: “I played for eight years in Maxtalent’s various tournaments and that contributed hugely in me becoming the captain of the UAE Under-19 team in the World Cup.”
