Dubai: Dressed in orange attire like the Netherlands football team, a bunch of promising cricketers under the age of 13, who produced an outstanding performance in the Maxtalent Inter-School tournament, flew out from the Dubai International Airport to Surrey in England to gain exposure on Friday.
The trip is one of the initiatives launched by Maxtalent Global Sports, which has an academy to help UAE produce talented junior cricketers.
Speaking to Gulf News, Sudhakar Shetty, Managing Director and head coach of the Maxtalent academy said: “We are flying out a strong contingent of 14 members from among the Under-13 ricketers for exposure and to experience the seaming and swinging conditions in the United Kingdom.
“We have picked not only the skilled trainees of Cricket Maxway, but also players who showed huge potential in our Vision Cup Inter-school tournament. This tournament, which is now the biggest inter-school tournament in the UAE, produces outstanding talent, and we thought this would be a right way to continue to nurture them.”
The 14 cricketers were given their tour caps at a ceremony held at the Al Nasr Sports Club. “They were put through a rigorous conditioning training camp ahead of the tour so that they were well equipped to face opponents in foreign conditions under the leadership of South African Kobus Olivier, who is a Level 3 coach and recently joined the Maxtalent Global Sports as the Senior Operations Manager. The team will play seven matches against Esher Cricket Club, Park Side School, Star Cricket Academy, Stoke D’abernon and Old Whitgiftians,” added Shetty.
Maxtalent regularly provides plenty of international exposure by organising tours to South Africa, Muscat, Mumbai and Kenya. “It’s a great experience for the boys because they get to face new opponents in foreign conditions and also learn different skills and gain immense self-confidence, which will make them better cricketers in the future,” said Shetty.
