Indianapolis: A 50-member, including officials of the USA Global Cricket Academy, on Wednesday departed for the 18-day competition-cum-training tour of Sri Lanka from December 18, 2015 to January 4, 2016. Thirty players of Under-23 age (at least 14 years of age) joined with 10+ Academy administrators including many professional coaches and two USA national selectors. Few more professional coaches from India will join the team in Sri Lanka on their arrival.
The USA young cricketers will play as many as 20 matches at different international venues with many coaching sessions in Sri Lanka.
USAGCA joins Great Cricket Steps initiative by Sri Lanka, with assurance to organize cricket tournaments both in Sri Lanka and USA. The 2015-16 Global Cricket Academy's Tour in Sri Lanka is an opportunity to expand cordial relations among two nations' cricket authorities and players.
Wishing good luck to the USA cricketers Sri Lanka Minister of Sports Dayasiri Jayasekera in a communication to the USA Global Cricket Academy, said " Sri Lanka can help with the expertise knowledge of Sri Lankan coaches and trainers. Elite players can be served as sports ambassadors in USA."
USA Global Cricket Academy Founder and President Ashok Patel said "This tour is primarily focused on learning and gain some experience to play at the best venues against highly competitive local talented teams in Sri Lanka. Our main goal is to provide more playing and learning opportunities to our talented players to hon their skills and our interest is very clear to give our players many additional games besides their original tight schedule for this tour.
Global Development Manager and coach Jatin Patel is working with Rahul Sharma, CEO & Global Operations Manager and many others in India to make this tour success full, life time memorable for our academy players, coaches and families."
"Team will have golden opportunity and life time memorable tour, as they are visiting Sri Lanka at the same time as India and Pakistan International matches are schedule to play. Besides, India under-19 cricketers are also visiting Sri Lanka at same time," said Jatin Patel.
The team: Sahaj Patel, Sukhdip Singh, Kishan Das, Jasdeep Singh, Guaranshu Sharma, Chetram Persaud, Sagar Patel, Rohan Gupta, Sam Kalpesh, Jay Pathak, Kushal Ganji, Karanjit Singh, Petamber Persuad, Rohit Nagendra, Chandandeep Singh, Brian Ajodhi, Aditya Patel, Pradeep Ravi, Daoud Mohamed, Sanjay Jonathan, Jwal Shelat, Sathyanarayana Venkatesan, Rishab Mohan, Atul Iyer, Santosh Reddy, Aamir Salim, Mohd Raafi Reza, Aman Patel, Shashank Vittaladevaram and Ajay Immadi.
USAGCA Officials: Rahul Sharma, USAGCA Director Global Operation/CEO, D.V Ravi Director -Strategy and Global Operation Manager Asia Pacific, John Wesley King, USACA national selector, Barney Jones, USACA national selection chairman, Linden Fraser USACA team head coach, Apurva Desai, consultant level -C coach NCA (BCCI) from India, Dashrath Sankhe USAGA coach and Julian Even Moor, USAGCA coach from Guyana.
