Port Blair, Sept 09: The Cricket has a charisma which can never be kept intact within the geographical boundaries of a particular state, region, or place. It is bound to transcend the boundaries and limits and go over miles and miles unless found the ones who can leverage it best. Enchanted with such Cricket charisma, three cricketers, Under 16, from Andaman made their way to Royal Selangor Club (RSC) Malaysia Cricket Association (MCA) International T20 Youth Cricket Tournament 2018 which was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 10th to 13th August 2018.
A total number of six well-trained teams, including RSC under 15 Malaysia, M.S. Dhoni Team (White) Singapore A, M.S. Dhoni Team Red Singapore, Cricket Federation of India (CFI) Team A & Team B, and Sri Lanka team, three cricket junkies named Salla Chenchu Sommadhitya – Carmel school, Udit Kumar Das Kamaraj English Medium School, and Kovvuru Yuvraj – GDMS, from Cap academy in Andaman and Nicobar Union Territory were shortlisted and made part of CFI teams. These three Andaman cricket buffs successfully completed their training under the guidance of Cap academy.
On this, Mr. Raj said, “Communication and transportation constraints are the biggest challenges we face in training our players at the academy. It is tough to give them a big picture of how cut-throat competition is prevailing at the international level. But, we are committed to bridging the gap between our talents in Andaman and the opportunities in metro cities. We are trying our bests to give India the best cricket players from a small isolated place like Andaman.”
In the exhilarating final match of the tournament between Malaysia vs. Singapore, M.S. Dhoni (White Team) emerged victorious while Malaysia counted as second runner-up, and CFI India Team (A) safely secured the third place on the winning podium. While it was the first time Andaman cricketers reached up to an international cricket tournament, the overall performance of CFI was appreciable. Bearing the responsibility of keeping the heads of CFI held high, the Andaman players exuberantly. THE PRIZE DISTRIBUTION CEREMONY WAS HELD ON 13TH AUGUST IN RSC BULKIT KAIRA WHERE K. YUVRAJ BAGGED THE PRESTIGIOUS TITLE OF BALL OUT CHAMPION IN THE TOURNAMENT.
Proud on his players, Mr. Raj Head of the academy congratulated them saying, “I would like to thank Cricket Federation of India for giving our young players such a huge opportunity. It’s the first time sportsmen from Andaman as young as the children are, have felt the thrills of a cricket match. This time, they did not win and brought the trophy to Andaman, but they did give prospects to a win-win situation for other aspiring cricketers in the state. I’m sure they will now aim for targets higher than ordinary. Also, many congratulations to all the participating teams of the tournament.”
