LONDON: Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Rajasthan Royals on Tuesday launched its inaugural cricket academy in the United Kingdom.
The Royals have teamed up with the popular Star Cricket Academy in Surrey, against whom the likes of Sachin Tendulkar had played against at the age of 15 back in the year 1988. It has now been rechristened as the ‘Rajasthan Royals Academy’.
The franchise has made a reputation for itself as talent nurturers of the IPL over the years. It has gone a step further this time, after having launched their grassroots program in India in October 2018, called the Royals Colts for boys and Royal Sparks for girls.
It chose UK as it is the home of principal owner Manoj Badale and the fact that several cricketers playing for the franchise hail from England such as Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer.
Badale commented on the academy launch: “Education and sports go hand in hand, which helps in building strong characters and leaders. Rajasthan Royals Academy is a great way to engage the youth, develop talent, and potentially find the stars of the future.”
“We have entered into this partnership to engage with the growing cricketing talent in the UK with learnings from the most innovative T20 league in the world. I am very thankful to Sid who shares the same vision as the Royals and agreed to join hands and provide training of the highest quality to budding cricket enthusiasts in the UK,” Royals head of cricket Zubin Bharucha added.
The state of the art facility at Reeds has an exclusively built cricket centre called the Jarrett Centre. It is an indoor cricket training centre run by former professional cricketer Sid Lahiri along with his team of international coaches that include Ollie Pope (England & Surrey), Ryan Patel (Under 19 England, Surrey pro), Amar Virdi (Surrey) and Alex Milton (Worcestershire).
“It feels great to be laying the foundations for the future careers of so many cricketers. I am honoured to have Rajasthan Royals on board who have always been keen on providing opportunities to young talent. We are thrilled to be starting on this new journey and are hopeful of producing cricket superstars from the Rajasthan Royals Academy,” Lahiri stated.
The franchise is keen to create an exchange programme across India and UK wherein the children from the UK will receive an opportunity to come to Institute of Sport, Nagpur and learn insights from the Indian experts, with the students from India getting an opportunity to learn new techniques and tactics from international coaches.
Rajasthan Royals have been at the forefront of promoting grassroots sport and education equally, announcing partnerships with Red Bull Campus Cricket and Australia’s Deakin University for this season as well.
