Trials for the children at the MIG Club, Mumbai on October 28-29

South Australian Tourism and Rajasthan Royals list 15 kids for cricket training in Adelaide

by  EVENTFAQS Bureau Marketing | November 6, 2014 | News

South Australian Tourism Commission Rajasthan Royals ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 Indian Premier League

In the run-up to the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, the Deputy Premier of South Australia, John Rau announced the names of 15 Indian school students selected as the Dream Team 15 which will tour Adelaide, South Australia for 15 days of intensive cricket coaching and high school cricket matches. This was done through a talent hunt conducted by the IPL franchisee Rajasthan Royals and the South Australian Tourism Commission.

The cricket skills based program is an initiative of the South Australian Government with a view to use Australia and India's shared love of cricket; to build new relationships between South Australia and India, and to give a group of school students from India from a range of backgrounds, an opportunity they wouldn't ordinarily have.

The program aims to leverage the India-South Australia sporting relationship along with further cementing mutual economic and tourism ties.

The Dream Team comprises of students from varied backgrounds with cricket as one common passion.  Selected fifteen include Mohsin Ali from Allahabad, Biswajeet Kumar from Ballia, Ankur Tevatia ,Dabas Kunal, Gaurav Gaur and Zoravar Singh from Delhi, Tarun Deore from Dhule,  Adishiva Joshi and Sammit Pawar from Mumbai, Pranav Sharma from Lucknow, Vivek Saroha from Muzaffarnagar, Suraj Yadav from Pune,  Prathmesh Nachankar from Ratnagiri, Praveen Yadav and Ranjeet Singh from Varanasi.

The selection of young cricket males from across different schools in India was delivered through a three-month talent hunt through trials overseen by IPL franchisee Rajasthan Royals, the Ambassador of the program.

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for these students. We received over 2500 applications pan India and over 450 applicants were invited to participate in selection trials in Delhi and Mumbai,” visiting South Australian Deputy Premier Rau said.

“The Dream Team 15’s young cricketers will learn from some of our top South Australian Cricket Association coaches, train in our world class facilities and play matches against a range of similar aged teams, including an indigenous team. They also get an opportunity to watch live the blockbuster India vs. Pakistan match on 15 February 2015 before they head back home.”

Adelaide Oval will host what is considered to be the one of the biggest matches in the ICC Cricket World Cup when the defending champions India take on Pakistan. The game is expected to attract a global audience of up to a billion.

Rau extended a word of gratitude for the IPL Team Rajasthan Royals “who have done a great job in scouting for the best of youth cricketing talent from India.”

“The South Australian Government is planning several key initiatives with India around the 2015 Cricket World Cup and Dream Team 15 is one of them.  We are planning a business mission of leading Industrialists from India to visit Adelaide during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. Business houses will have a great opportunity to explore investment and trade opportunities alongside Cricket.”

Raghu Iyer, CEO Rajasthan Royals added, “The Rajasthan Royals has always stressed on the need to identify and nurture young talent in India. Therefore, we are privileged to partner with the South Australia Government in this unique and exciting endeavor and thank them for the opportunity. We believe the Dream Team 15 - carefully chosen from among a whopping 2500 applications - will make the best of this fantastic chance to train. While we scouted for players, the three-month hunt presented us with many challenging moments thanks to the sheer quality of talent but also gave us yet another opportunity to enjoy the top-class proficiency of our high school children”.