Cricket For Cubs Hold Successful Inter-School Tournament

Cal High Cricket Club won the High School Division tournament.

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Sixteen teams with players from 14 different schools and after school cricket clubs participated in the Fifth edition of Cricket for Cubs Inter-School tournament held over two weekends December 2 and December 9, 2017, in Pleasanton, San Ramon and Dublin cities in California. The more than 200 players competed in elementary, middle and high school division cricket and playing 35 games. A high school division was introduced in this edition of the tournament with participation from three cricket clubs from San Ramon Valley High School and Dublin Unified school district.

Below are the tournament participants, winners and runners-up along with the best players in each division:
Elementary Division:
Mohr Cricket Club
Kolb Cricket Club
John Green Cricket Club
Amador Cricket Club
Live Oak Cricket Club

Champions – Amador Cricket Club led by Ayush Batghare
Runner-up – Mohr Cricket Club led by Saanvi Immadi
Best Bowler – Arush Chitgopkar, Live Oak Cricket Club
Best Batsman – Akhil Venkatesh, John Green Cricket Club
Best Fielder – Aditya Chandrasekhar, Live Oak Cricket Club
Most Valuable Player – Ayush Batghare, Amador Cricket Club

Middle School Division:
Fallon Middle School – Three teams
Harvest Park Cricket Club
Hart Cricket Club
Iron Horse Cricket Club
Gale Ranch Cricket Club
Windmere Ranch Cricket Club

Middle Division champion, Fallon Middle School.

Champions – Fallon Middle School led by Saketh Ayinaparthy
Runner-up – Windmere Ranch Cricket Club led by Rohan Posanipally
Best Bowler – Sanjay Adhikesaven, Hart Cricket Club
Best Batsman – Ajay Immadi, Harvest Park Cricket Club
Best Fielder – Saketh Ayinaparthy, Fallon Middle School
Most Valuable Player –Sahil Garg, Windmere Ranch Cricket Club

High School Division:
Dublin High Cricket Club
Cal High Cricket Club
Dougherty Valley Cricket Club

Champions – Cal High Cricket Club led by Shamith Pasula
Runner-up – Dougherty Valley Cricket Club lead by Karan Sidhu
Best Bowler – Kaustub Kanagalekar, Cal High Cricket Club
Best Batsman – Shamith Pasula, Cal High Cricket Club
Best Fielder – Parth Gupta, Dougherty Valley Cricket Club
Most Valuable Player –Rishab Jayaram, Dougherty Valley Cricket Club

It was great to see the Cricket for Cubs youth board members putting themselves in the driver seat and running the 5th Edition of Cricket for Cubs Inter-school tournament from planning to execution, including the closing ceremony. It was not an easy task considering it was the biggest and best edition of the tournaments.

Elementary Division winner were Amador Cricket Club.

When Cricket for Cubs started on the journey of establishing a non-profit organization 18 months ago, one of the objectives was to prepare tomorrow leaders, using the wonderful sport of cricket as the vehicle. Cricket for Cubs soon realized what a wonderful collaborative effort it was, with four of the youth Board of Directors members chipping in to make the tournament a success. Ajay Immadi served as the Master-of-Ceremony for the closing event, Shamith Pasula spoke about Cricket for Cubs and its vision, Anish Kolan recalled the achievements of Cricket for Cubs from infrastructure and to resources, and Varun Yadevilli covered the success of the tournaments.

Cricket for Cubs would like to thank David Haubert, Mayor, City of Dublin, Bill Clarkson, Mayor, City of San Ramon, Sridhar Verose, San Ramon Parks and Community Services Commissioner, Sindu Sirharsha, USA Women’s Cricket Team captain, Joan Larsen, President, Pleasanton Unified School District Board, Steve Meher, Board Member, Pleasanton Unified School District, and Ken Steve Mintz, Vice President, San Ramon Valley Unified School District Board for being there to present the trophies to the winners.

A tournament at such magnitude is not possible without sponsors, and Prashanti Lakamsani was there to present the trophies on behalf of Grand Sponsors Arkrit LLC, Bijju Nair, Chairman and President of Think Palm Technologies, and Raghu Yelluru, COO, Smart ERP gold sponsors for Cricket for Cubs handed over the trophies in the various categories.

About Cricket for Cubs:
Established in 2016 to promote youth cricket in schools and communities at no cost to the participants, successfully introduced cricket in 18 schools in Dublin, Pleasanton and San Ramon school districts in California with cricket established as part of the school’s Physical Exercise curriculum in three middle schools.

The uniqueness of the program is each of the schools conduct a year-round program (32 weeks) with professional coaches training the kids in the respective schools weekly, and for at least one hour with Cricket for Cubs sponsoring the complete program. In the first year CFC trains the P.E./Athletic staff and builds the curriculum based on the school grades (Elementary, Middle School and High School) to establish cricket as part of P.E. curriculum in the second year. In the third year Cricket for Cubs works with the respective school districts and athletic leagues to establish cricket as an athletic program.

Cricket for Cubs is working with different cities and school districts to build the necessary cricket infrastructure to be shared with the respective community members at no cost. Cricket for Cubs completed its first infra project – two cricket batting cages at Emerald Glen Park, Dublin in partnership with the City of Dublin and is currently working on finalizing agreements with two other cities to construct cricket pitches. Additional information can be found at www.cricketforcubs.org