Coca-Cola XI to face off with Sri Lankan National U - 16 team

Fifteen of India’s leading under-16 cricketers will represent the Coca-Cola XI against the visiting Sri Lankan National Under-16 side in a three-match series to be played in Mysore on May 8, 10 and 11, 2012.

 

This was announced by PN Sankaran – Director Operations, Procam International & Gautam Trehan, Coca-Cola India.

 

The 15 players have emerged after seven months of intense cricketing action, covering around 700 schools in 65 districts across ten states and involving the participation of around 11,000 young cricketers.

 

Following the initial Intra-State matches, ten champion schools, winners from their respective states travelled to Mumbai to play in the Inter-State round of the Coca-Cola U-16 Cricket Cup Tournament. The week-long event saw KDMA, Kanpur emerge the Coca-Cola Cup champions after defeating Springfield Rizvi in the final. KDMA were awarded a cash prize of Rs.1 lakh while Rizvi took home Rss.70000.

 

The Inter State matches were watched closely by the selection panel comprising of Saba Karim, Lalchand Rajput, Nilesh Kulkarni & Ajit R, who picked 20 of the most talented players. These players then underwent a week-long coaching camp, following which the best 15 were picked to represent the Coca-Cola XI.

 

The Coca-Cola U-16 Cricket Cup is an initiative undertaken by Coca-Cola India as part of its commitment to promote a sporting culture and healthy active living in the country and is being promoted by Procam International, India’s largest sports and leisure management company.

 

Speaking on the occasion, Gautam Trehan of Coca-Cola India said, "It gives us all at Coca-Cola India, immense pleasure and a great sense of satisfaction that many talented young players have been identified at the grassroots level and will now get groomed to go on to play bigger league games in the future. We are certain that this foundation laid for nurturing cricketing talent in the country will go a long way in taking cricket to the next level. On behalf of Coca-Cola India, I would like to congratulate all the fifteen players for an astounding display of talent and wish them the very best for the future. Coca-Cola India has always believed in promoting healthy, active lifestyle through sports. We believe that India has great sporting talent. Some of the best sportsmen and women have come from the most unassuming of places, and it is our endeavour to give this talent a platform with robust grassroots initiatives like the Coca-Cola U-16 cricket cup. I wish the Coca-Cola XI the very best for the match. We are looking forward to some great cricketing action".

 

PN Sankaran Director Operations, Procam International, said “It’s been an exciting period of competitive cricket that has now reached its climax. So wide has been the net cast by the Coca-Cola Cricket Cup, that the champion school emerging from the Inter-State Leg can truly wear the mantle of the best under-16 cricket playing school in the country and the pool of 20 players selected for the coaching clinic were absolute best under-16 cricket playing talent in the country. We are delighted to have Coca-Cola India as our partners for The Coca-Cola U-16 Cricket Cup and this partnership has enabled us to encourage young cricketing talent in the country and served as an ideal platform to promote grassroots cricket, identify promising talent and groom the country’s next generation of International cricketers.”

 

Speaking about the initiative, Saba Karim, former Test cricketer and Chief Mentor of the initiative, had this to say “At the end of the program, three best players –‘the Coca-Cola Cricket Stars’ will be groomed for a period of three years enabling them to realize their dream of donning International colors. Depending on their core strength, they will also get an opportunity to further hone their skills by attending training camps under the guidance of prominent ex-cricketers. The elaborate structure of the Coca-Cola Cricket Cup ensured that players played some tough cricket and prepared themselves to face bigger challenges.”

 

The Coca-Cola Intra-State Challenge was played in Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh (all 13 districts), Punjab (six major districts and 14 minor districts), Baroda, Tamil Nadu (6 districts), West Bengal (18 districts), Uttar Pradesh (Lucknow and Kanpur) and Madhya Pradesh. The format of the Coca-Cola Cricket Cup was structured to begin with the Intra-State Challenge, which was open to all schools in the respective cities and districts. The centers that have more than one city or district played their own inter-district before one winner emerged from each center. The winners from the ten centers will feature in the Inter-State Challenge.

 

BCCI over the past several years has done a tremendous job of enhancing the growth of cricket in India. They have done so by adopting a result oriented approach of organising age group tournaments all over the country through their state associations.

 

This has helped immensely in carving out talented individuals on a regular basis. Most of these cricketers have moved ahead and have brought laurels for their states and the country.

 

Seeing the vast potential and growing popularity of this game, Coca-Cola India has a vision of facilitating BCCI in their quest to tap talent. We believe that the future of Indian cricket lies in these young talented budding cricketers. We intend to provide a perfect opportunity and platform to all the youngsters across the country to showcase their talent, skill and equally important, pride and loyalty to their school. It gives BCCI and their affiliated state units a brilliant arena to scout for potential match winners.

 

We hope that this initiative will serve as an ideal platform to identify and nurture young talented cricketers for them to be able to get noticed by the state associations and BCCI to represent the country on an International level.