– HILLSBOROUGH, N.J.
After completing a year-long cricket training program, a group of children below the age of 13 were awarded trophies for their accomplishments at Dream Cricket Academy, an indoor cricket training facility here, Dec. 8.
Known as Cricket League of New Jersey’s Youth Program, the program is run by Kranthi Bayya and Venu Palaparthi.
Apart from playing 26 matches, students of the academy also got to meet with legendry players like Sunil Gavaskar and Syed Kirmani who visited CLNJ. “We received a signed bat from Indian captain M.S. Dhoni and participated in an interactive session with V.V.S. Laxman”, Palaparthi told Desi Talk.
Among the top performers who won awards at U-15 level included Shekhar Kripalani, Richard Ramrattan and Raymond Ramrattan. At the U-13 level, Chaitanya Parwal, Saiteja Mukkamalla, Chirag Ballani and Yash Parikh won awards.
Bayya told Desi Talk she reached out to parents to allow their kids, both boys and girls to learn cricket, the most popular game in India.”We want more girls to come out of their homes and enter the athletic field”, she said.
Shikha and Neha Uberoi, the Princeton-N.J- based sisters, who made their mark on the tennis court, addressed the award ceremony. Shikha is only the second female player of Indian origin to feature and win a round at a Grand Slam tournament.
Reflecting on their own careers, the Uberoi sisters told the young players that every failure was a path to success. “The average teenager attention span rarely exceeds 40 minutes, which meant that lesson plans had to be about 20 minutes long in order to be effective”, they pointed out.
“Cricket program must be introduced at athletic fields in New Jersey schools”, said Palaparthi, who helped make the program raise funds from local leagues.
“With the support of Cricket League of New Jersey we gained access to best grounds in the state.” He informed that the program now has two U-13 teams and a Colts team that plays in the adult league.
