The California Cricket Academy (CCA) under-11 cricket team, which recently toured England and played nine matches, has triumphantly brought home the English County championship Trophy.
Between July 29 and August 7, the team played in the prestigious inter-county cricket festival conducted by the English Schools Cricket. The tournament was conducted in Taunton, Somerset County, at the Kings College grounds. The CCA team played Somerset, Cambridgeshire, Berkshire, Hampshire, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire county teams.
In the 32 years of these festivals, thousands of young cricketers have played the West Cricket Festival, including several current members of various national teams like England, South Africa and West Indies. It was a fantastic atmosphere for the kids to experience, and they were super excited about it.
After six months of behind the scenes preparation, three weeks of intense practice, 6,000 miles of travel and two practice games on the outskirts of London, the day of the first game finally arrived for the CCA boys and it was against the home team and winners of the previous three editions, Somerset. Ved Patel of CCA scored 153 not out to earn a spot in Somerset Hall of Fame. Ved Patel ended up with 580 runs in seven innings with two centuries.
After Somerset, CCA took on Cambridgeshire, Berkshire, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire. CCA U11 was the only team that played six consecutive days 45 overs games. Tournament organizers appreciated the Academy players’ discipline, technique, fielding, fitness and ability to adjust to new environment.
“California Cricket academy boys were not only super talented but were great ambassadors of their country and academy. They displayed great discipline on and off the field which speaks volume about their training. We want the boys to come back again next year,” said Malcolm Broad, administrator of Somerset County festival.
“We are proud of young boys who played brilliant innings to clinch the title, first time ever by an outside team in the history of West Cricket Festival. With this victory, CCA boys have now won tournaments in USA, Canada, India and UK. These tours validate maturity of our program.” Says Kinjal Buch, President of CCA.
“We thank our sponsors Tech Mahindra and Ruckus Wireless. Their support to promote grassroot level cricket helped the team prepare for this important tour”, continues Kinjal Buch.
The team was coached by Amit Buch, who coaches youth team in India and managed by Bharani Seshan, a CCA parent.
India Post News Service
