New Jersey: North America Telugu Association’s North East Junior's Cricket Cup has started with great enthusiasm at Mercer County Park, New Jersey on September 22, 2013.
The event was sponsored and organized by NATA and Cricmax.
More than 250 people have participated including 90 cricket players, coaches, parents and friends of players. NATA Cricket Cup Committee Co-Chair Nagesh Mukkamalla took the lead and organized the opening day with the help of BODs, RVPs, RC’s from North East.
NATA BODs Rajeshwar Reddy, Hari Velkur, Cricket committee chair Srikanth Reddy Penumada, member Sathya Pathapati, RVP Shiva Meka, Regional Coordinators Sarath Veta and volunteers Pratap Palagiri, Bala Lingala, Ugendra Karnati, Pradeep, Lakshmi Mukkamalla, Rajini Palagiri, Sandhya Lingala have helped with the arrangements.
Six teams participated in this tournament and those teams are CLNJ Colts (Coach Earl Daley), CLNJ Cubs (Coach Damion Morgan), Cricmax Tigers Jr. (Coach Ashok Patel), Sons of Liberty (Coach Lalta Persaud), Bridgewater Tigers (Coach Sandeep Taneja) and SSU Challengers (Coach Amar Kulkarni).
Sons of Liberty from Group A and Cricmax’s Tigers Jr. from Group B made to the final.
Finals will be played on September 29th morning starting at 8:30 AM.
West Indies Ex-Captain Alvin KalliCharran, NATA President Dr. Sanjeeva Reddy and Advisory Council Dr. Malla Reddy Pailla will be our chief guests for the final.
West Windsor Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh, Plainsboro Mayor Peter Cantu and WW-P Board of Education School board member Rachelle Feldman Hurwitz are also coming for the Finals.
Please join us encourage little players and make this event a big success.
Indian Test Cricketer Ashok Patel, Dream Criket Venu, Cricke-Max, Dipesh Patel, Amar Shah, Shrey Patel, Arpith Shah have attended this event and helped with the tournament.
Volunteers and Satya Pathapati, Nagesh Mukkamalla and Rajeshwar Reddy have started the preparations (setting up banners, tents, chairs) from 6:30 AM in the morning.
It is really great to see well-disciplined junior cricket players, coaches and all the families together on the ground. They played real cricket with hard glaze ball, helmets, pads and professional cricket bats.
The matches were umpired by NATA volunteers Ravikanth Chavva and Santosh Chennareddhh and Cricmax Toby, Venkat.
The day started with uncertainty, as it had rained all the way up to the morning of the play.
Parents and coaches eagerly looking for weather predictions while kids waited for the opportunity to showcase their talent. But alas! The cricket Gods could not confide against the budding athletes and the sun came out by 8:00 am and the ground dried soon thereafter.
Cricmax team ensured that both grounds were properly equipped and all set for the young talents to have a go at each other without any hindrances.
NATA volunteers had worked tirelessly to set-up the tents, food and other arrangements.
As the day progressed crowds increased, cheers grew louder and games became more intense. Everyone from the Parents, Organizers, Coaches and even By Passers were stunned when they witnessed a 7 year marked his 10 yards run up and came up to bowl a nice tight line and length ball to another 7 year old who very technically defended the ball showing the respect to a good ball.
Kids showed the maturity even though playing T20 format (Shorter version, meant for fast action) of the cricket game and treated each ball on the merit.
The day ended with nice handshakes in good spirit of the game and some awards presented by Coach Ashok Patel to the kids who bowled the maidens and pictures of all the kids with the NATA team.
The day ended with two teams making their way to the finals but more importantly with the youth learning to apply the skills in a competitive setting and enjoy a full day of Cricket.
Please check out all the NATA Cricket Juniors 2013 pictures
