Report by Santanu Ganguly, Mumbai: Initiative to promote grassroots cricket and identify promising cricketing talent from the Country. Partnership takes forward Coca-Cola India’s commitment to promote a sporting culture and healthy active living in the country. Inter-State challenge to begin on April 14, 2014 in Mumbai. Cricket India Academy (CIA) to provide the coaching program and expertise for the coaching camp and team for the second year in a row. Twenty-four of the best players from the Inter-state challenge to be shortlisted for an intensive coaching camps. Entire program is mentored by Saba Karim.
After eight months of intense cricketing action covering 820 schools in 66 districts across ten states and involving the participation of close to 12,500 young cricketers, ten of India’s top cricket playing school teams have now qualified for the intense inter-state challenge of the Coca-Cola Cricket Cup for Under-16 Boys. The talented players will now pit their skills against each other in the Inter-State Challenge of one of the country’s largest Inter-School Cricket championships, which will be played across seven venues in Mumbai beginning April 14, 2014.
The commencement of the Inter-State leg was announced in the city on Friday by Dilip Jayram, CEO, Procam International, in the presence of Shrikant Tigdi, MCA and P.N. Sankaran, Procam International.
Al. Barkat Malik M. I. English School has emerged the champion school from Mumbai and will open their campaign against DAV Sr. Sec. School, Chandigarh at Hindu Gymkhana ground on April 14.
The other champion schools in the fray are Sports College, Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh), St. Johns Jr. College, Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh), Salwan Boys Sr. Sec. School, Rajendra Nagar (Delhi), Shreyas Samarpan Vidyalaya, Baroda (Gujarat), AVR E Techno School, Vijayawada (Andhra Pradesh), Debinagar K.C.R. Vidyapith, Uttar Dinajpur (West Bengal), Don Bosco Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Chennai (Tamil Nadu), and Kiddys Corner Higher Secondary School, Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh).
The ten teams will be divided into two groups of five each and league matches will be played till April 20 at the following grounds: Hindu Gymkhana, Islam Gymkhana, Mahalaxhmi Ground (WR), Trombay, HPCL Ground, Police Gymkhana and RCF. The top two teams of each group will play the semi-finals on April 19, followed by the grand final on April 20..
Intensive Seven-day Coaching Clinic: Twenty-four of the best players from the Inter-State Leg of the Coca-Cola Cricket Cup will be picked for a seven-day coaching clinic to be conducted from 21st – 27th April 2014. -The clinic will be conducted by veteran Cricket India Academy coaches like Anthony Adam.
Following the week-long clinic, the Coca-Cola XI will be selected to play a three-match series against an international under 16 team in the month of June.
Speaking on the occasion, said, Sumanta Datta, CBO-Company Bottling Operations, INSWABU, said, “It gives me great pleasure today to kick-start the Inter-State challenge for the Coca-Cola Cricket Cup. Coca-Cola India has had a long association of supporting grassroots sports in India. We strongly believe that it is at this level where encouragement and guidance is required to boost participation and develop successful players. We look forward to an exciting season with some of the best teams from across the country. I wish everyone the best of luck for the upcoming challenge.”
P.N. Sankaran, Procam International, said, “We are thrilled to have come to the concluding and challenging Inter-State Leg of this year’s Coca-Cola U-16 Cricket Cup. At each juncture of the event, we came across some excellent talent across the length and breadth of India. It has been a matter of great pride and joy to partner Coca-Cola in this immensely satisfying and unique endeavour. We wish the participating teams the very best for the final leg”.
Speaking about the initiative, Saba Karim, former Test cricketer and Chief Mentor of the initiative said, “Youngsters studying in schools across the country continue to amaze us with their passion, knowledge and talent when it comes to cricket. Through the Cup, it is our endeavour to spot cricket aptitude and nurture it in the right manner in order to give the nation the players it needs in the future.”
The Inter-State Leg will help crown the champion Under-16 cricket playing school team in the country. Following the tournament, 24 of the best players will be shortlisted for an intensive seven-day coaching clinic to be conducted by Cricket India Academy coaches. The coaching clinic will serve as catalyst in identifying the final Coca-Cola XI, who will play a three-match series against an international under 16 team. The Champion school of the Coca-Cola Cricket Cup will we awarded a cash prize worth Rs.1,00,000 while the runner-up school team will be awarded Rs 70,000 in addition to individual awards for excellence.
Cricket India Academy (CIA), the cricket division of Sports Education Development India Limited (CEDIL) is continuing to provide the coaching program and expertise for the coaching camp and team selection at the Coca-Cola U16 Cricket Cup for the second year in a row. With renowned Indian cricketer Pravin Amre as Coach Director, CIA was established in 2009 with a focus on modern coaching methodologies to provide the most effective learning environment to produce champions of tomorrow.
The academy seeks to further develop this important program to ensure a thorough and transparent selection process helps select 24 of the best players. It also seeks to provide coach education and training support to the coaches of each winning state school. Apart from this, the CIA will also provide a high performance training experience and environment for the national squad chosen from the national championship and select the under-16 team to play an International Series once the Cup concludes.
The Coca-Cola 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.
The Coca-Cola Intra-State Challenge will be played in Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh (all 13 districts), Punjab (eight districts), Baroda, Tamil Nadu (Chennai + 8 districts), West Bengal (Kolkata + 18 districts), Uttar Pradesh (Lucknow, Kanpur & Allahabad), and Madhya Pradesh (4 districts). The format of the Coca-Cola Cricket Cup has been structured to begin with the Intra-State Challenge. The centers that have more than one city or district will play their own inter-district before one winner emerges 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.
Coca-Cola in India refreshes millions of consumers throughout the country with an exciting range of beverages including Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Thums Up, Fanta, Limca, Sprite, Maaza, Maaza Milky Delite, Minute Maid Pulpy Orange, Minute Maid Nimbu Fresh, Minute Maid Mixed Fruit, Minute Maid Apple, Georgia, Georgia Gold, Kinley, Kinley Club Soda, Burn and Nestea through a network of more than one million outlets. The company has invested more than US$ 1 billion in its Indian operations, emerging as one of the country's top international investors. The Coca-Cola system in India employs more than 25,000 people directly.
In 1988, with a vision to provide a more holistic spend to the advertising rupee and a burning desire to ameliorate the prevailing professional standards for sportsmen, Anil and Vivek B. Singh created Procam International.
Procam International is today a full-fledged sports management company, involved in the promotion of national and international sporting events, sports consultancy and live television programming.
Procam International has based its corporate philosophy on an open culture, with an emphasis on values and integrity. Procam International has promoted and conducted over 45 world events, which have elicited player participation of the highest caliber, as well as huge public interest.
The Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon, the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon and the TCS World 10K in Bangalore are three of the most prestigious distance running events in the world. This has established Procam International as the leading sports events creator in India. Its professionalism, attention to detail and dedication has won it the faith of its sponsors and partners.
