VINODE MAMCHAN Rajesh Sharma and Tanvir Iqbal had their hands full last Friday, when the Cricket Council USA (CCUSA) bandwagon rolled into Pine Crest School in Fort Lauderdale. CCUSA was invited for the third straight year to participate in the all day multicultural event and made its presence felt.During the course of the day, activity was always buzzing around the CCUSA tent as students came by wanting to try their hand at the novel sport of cricket at their school. CCUSA was stationed at the football field and kids were organised into groups of 13-15. Each group had a 20-minute session with the coaches but this was not enough for them, as they wanted more. The coaches kindly obliged and by the end of the day they were exhausted but very happy with the interest shown by the students.What was surprising was the interest shown by the female students at the school.
They were very enthusiastic about playing and asked a lot of questions. When questioned as to their experience with the coaches, they were all of the opinion that it was fun and they thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Chairman of CCUSA, Mahammad Qureshi who has piloted projects like these was happy with the response. “I am happy to see the response of the kids to our booth and what was offered to them. I have been saying all along that if we want this game to catch up here in America we need to tap into the youngsters. Programmed like the Multicultural Day gives us that opportunity to interact with the kids and to show them that there is a sport called cricket which is wonderful and can bring lots of fun, in addition to the health benefits of being active.“We are sure to continue our association with the school, as we look to build cricket in America and is looking to forge partnerships with all stakeholders.”
Last year CCUSA went into Plantation School, where they conducted sessions and have been with the kids there since, trying to find and nurture talent, as they spread the gospel of cricket.
