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✪ A summer camp to remember at the Victoria Cricket Academy
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Senior cricket writer & analyst
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Victoria Cricket Academy at Skyline College, with its spectacular facilities, conducted a nearly two-month long summer camp. It was learning curve for the budding cricketers with not only four-hour long coaching sessions but also matches in different formats of the game for different age categories. A team of coaches and a fitness trainer ensured that the students were shaped for higher levels of cricket.
It was an interesting Thursday evening at the Victoria Cricket Academy Summer Camp closing ceremony held at Skyline College, Sharjah. As the chief guest of the evening, I had to hand over prizes to the best performers of the camp. After seeing the joy in the budding cricketers, I returned convinced that “you can take the kid out of camp but you cannot take the camp out of the kid,” was absolutely true for these young cricketers. It was certain that all the boys and girls did have an unforgettable summer camp.
The facilities at the huge premises comprising 12 net practice areas (three turf wickets and nine cement wickets) provided them with not only the atmosphere to enjoy but also learn. This academy which was established in 2015, and has a 26 acers state of the art cricketing facility with five cricket grounds in which two are junior grounds. From July 2nd to August 30th , it was learning curve for everyone at this academy during the summer camp.
Victoria, as the name suggests, has imparted qualities that could transform the trainees victorious in life. Guiding them to be successful are coaches Vinod Nayar, Harish Bhasker, Noushad Alam, Habibul Basher, Paramjit Singh, Mohammed Naeem, Shofiul Islam and fitness trainer Mohammed Bashir. The budding cricketers’ willingness to learn from the team of coaches’ has resulted in Victoria emerging triumphant in many local tournaments.
Coaches Harish Bhasker, Noushad Alam, Habibul Basher, Paramjit Singh, Mohammed Naeem, Vinod Nayar, Shofiul Islam, fitness trainer Mohammed Bashir (not in pic).
The office room of the academy, located between two large cricket grounds, is filled with trophies won by them in UAE’s domestic cricket tournaments. These trophies sparkle as a testimony of the efforts that the young cricketers of this academy have put in to win tournaments. The room is filled with 38 winner’s trophies and 19 runners up trophies in different age categories held in UAE and organized by Emirates Cricket Board and different academies.
Victoria Cricket Academy team that emerged champions of the Emirates Cricket Board Academy league 2019-20
Behind every successful venture is a passionate cricket enthusiast, and they have Shabir Pardiwala, the Managing Director of Victoria Cricket Academy. Be it the summer camp or daily training, he makes it a point to be at the academy to ensure that facilities are all in place. Speaking at the summer camp, Shabir attributed the success of this academy to the parents who have backed the passion in the youngsters to learn cricket. Gopakumar Narayanan is the academy director while Tanvir Ahamned Gondal is the academy manager.
Receiving a memento from Shabir Pardiwala, Managing Director of Victoria Cricket Academy (left)
Victoria Cricket Academy is not ready to rest on their laurels and their present facilities. Nine more turf wickets are under construction. A gymnasium and three football grounds too will be ready in two months.
Under-17 winners
“The summer camp was a treat for the 47 students who participated in Under-11, Under-14 and Under-17 categories. Class duration was for four hours in which the first one hour was exclusively used for extensive fitness training. Coaching was focused more on developing their skills. For each category, four center-wicket practice sessions were provided to simulate match situation for the players. A total of 19 practice matches were arranged for different categories internally and with external academies,” remarked coach Vinod Nayar.
Under-17 runners-up
All of these budding cricketers were given the experience of playing in various formats. In the last week of summer camp, Victoria Cricket Academy introduced a new 10-over a side format namely Super Sevens Under-14 and Super Sixes for the Under-17 and Under 14 categories.
Under-14 winners
“Super Sevens and Super Sixes consisted of seven and six players in each teams. Four teams in the League phase played against each other. In this unique format only the bowler and keeper will be inside and there are no field restrictions for the entire 10 overs. The batter can only bat for 15 balls and he can come back only if other batters finish their entire quota or lose their wickets. This format not only tests their hitting abilities, it also tested their running between the wickets as well as the thinking abilities as a batsman and a bowler,” said Vinod Nayar.
Under-14 runners-up
One of the creditable moments for Victoria Cricket Academy was when they won the Emirates Academy League Championship in the 2019-20 season. Two bowlers from this academy – Monish Gajesh and Adithya Vinod Nayar figured in top five among the bowlers while batsman Madhav Manoj Nair figured among the best in Emriates Cricket Board league.
Among the players from this academy who have gone on to play international tournaments representing the UAE are Sanchit Sharma (UAE Under-19) and Aayan Khan (UAE Under-16). Among those who went on to play for Indian states from this academy are Shoun Roger (Kerala Under-19), Vishnu Ranjith (Kerala Under-16) and Mohammed Enaan (Kerala Under-14). Those who have played in Kerala district matches are Madhav Manoj, Rehan Sajith and Adithya Vinod Nayar, who got selected for the ADCB Little Master Talent Hunt in UAE twice, once by Anil Kumble and Vijay Barathwaj. Yasir Khan from this academy went on to represent Pakistan’s Balochistan Under-19 team.
Victoria Cricket Academy’s victorious march to grooming youngsters and launching them to higher levels of competition thus seems to continue unabated.
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