All India inter-school tourney from today

Ten teams for All India Inter-schools under 16 tourney Ten schools from across the length and breadth of the country have advanced from the qualifying stage to the Coca Cola Cup All India Inter State under-16 cricket tournament,commencing here tomorrow. These 10 schools have been divided into two groups of five each to spot the semi-finalists and then the ultimate winner in the tournament,set to conclude on April 30. The tournament winners will get Rs one lakh in cash prize and the runners-up Rs 70,000,it was announced by the event’s organisers here today.

The schools who have made it to the national level competition are Rizvi Springfield (Mumbai),DAV Sr Secondary (Punjab),Wesley Jr Boys (Hyderabad),KDMA (Kanpur),Kamraj Sr Secondary Municipal (Erode,TN) (all in Pool A),K Hansraj (Delhi),La Martinere (Kolkata),V P Siddhartha (AP),Christian Eminent (MP) and BHS Alkapuri (Baroda) (all in Pool B). These 10 schools got through the qualification process,involving 700 school teams in 65 districts from 10 states. Twenty of the best players from the inter-state leg would be chosen for a seven-day coaching clinic to be conducted from May 1-7,after which a combined team would be chosen to play against a visiting Sri Lanka under 16 schools team from May 8-11. Later three boys would be picked by a selection panel for a six-week coaching stint in two public schools in England,according to the chief mentor of the initiative — former India stumper Syed Saba Karim. Apart from Karim,the selection panel consists of two other former India players,Lalchand Rajput and Nilesh Kulkarni,along with coach Sanjay Bharadwaj.

“They would stay with families in England during the six-week tour and play matches as part of the teams representing the two English public schools,” Karim informed.