Dubai: Thirty-six budding cricketers of the G Force Cricket Academy toured England and have returned to UAE with a cricketing experience that could boost their game. Not only they played many matches winning Under-11 and Under-13 match titles after playing against top teams but also received unique coaching experience from renowned coaches and even returned fitter after undergoing strength and conditioning classes.
This was the eighth tour of the academy team, which stays at the picturesque Epsom College in Surrey. Speaking to Gulf News, Gopal Jaspara, the Head coach of the academy said: “The reputation of our tour over the years and the activities during the camp has spread so much that boys from England, Slovenia, Switzerland and India joined us for our unique coaching and matches program. It was 20 days on non-stop cricket which youngsters do not get to experience here. All the four cricket fields and 14 net practice facilities at the Epsom College were fully utilised. To avoid time loss by travelling we invited teams to come and play at the Epsom grounds and thus we played against even the Karachi Gymkhana from Karachi and won both the matches.”
Renowned coach Ian Trott, the father of Test star Jonathan Trott and Mark Cody conducted net sessions while Kavita Pandya, former Indian Women Strength and Conditioning coach who has now joined Bangladesh Women Cricket team, worked hard on making youngsters fitter. Women cricketers and former UAE women’s team captain Charvi Bhatt and Kiran Patel organised all facilities for the training.
Inspiring talk sessions from coach Ben Scott and cricket enthusiast Shyam Bhatia were held. Bhatia who promotes cricket around the world through his Cricket for Care programme, flew in from Dubai to witness the camp activities.
The outstanding performers of the tour were Arjun Sawant, who cracked a century in a 15-over game, Bhavesh Lalchandani who scored 93 runs in a T20 match against HKSZ Academy from East London and UAE Under-16 probable Jash Giyanani who produced excellent all-round performance. Aryan Modha stood out from among Under-11 boys. The other top performers were: Under-16 boys: Abhishekh Chavan, Prakhar Singh, Madhav Nardhani, Anulome Kishore, Abhay Katoch, Lokesh Lalchandani, Umar Fashi. Ruth Mukharjee in Under 13 category and under-11 players Neeraj Shah, Siddharth Chowdhry, Rajveer Sagar, Aadithya Bhatia and Aditya Anada.
