The School Games Federation of India (SGFI) on Wednesday announced former international cricketers Madan Lal and Chetan Sharma as part of their initiative, the National School Cricket League (NSCL).
The NSCL is a franchise-based school cricket league for under-18 school cricketers and the SGFI will be conducting a nation-wide talent hunts, trial camps and promotion across India to select the players for the 16 teams. The selected youngsters will then represent their respective 16 state teams in a league which will be held at premier venues across the country.
According to Madan Lal, “school cricket” was the base and needed to be revived and made stronger for the country to have a vast pool of talented players. “I recall playing a lot of school cricket in the late 1960s in my home town (Amritsar) and remember several of my former India team-mates, including my ex-captain, Kapil Dev play school cricket. I firmly believe that school is the nursery where one can develop a youngster’ game,” Lal said.
Chetan Sharma recalled his experience of playing for SGFI. “The future of cricket will be safe and strong when we pay more attention to development of school cricket. As a youngster, I bagged my first big break when I was selected by the SGFI to represent the Indian school cricket team for a tour to West Indies. The exposure and the experience I gained at the right age were unforgettable and they played a great role in shaping my destiny and took me to the Indian team’s dressing room.”
The winning team will get 21 lakh and runner-up 11 lakh. The prize for the Most Valuable Player would be an opportunity to play in the English Minor County league.
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