Singapore select players but refuse to name them

PUNE: Singapore Cricket Association (SCA) officials, who were in the city to recruit young cricketers to play for that country have almost finalised the names of those selected — but refrained from announcing them.
In past two days, the SCA secretary Anil Kalaver and former Sri Lankan Test cricketer Brendon Kuruppu, who is the director of cricket coaching in Singapore, saw 16 boys (14 from Maharashtra and two from Delhi) at the Cadence Cricket Academy here.
“We narrowed down the number to eight on Tuesday. All the boys were asked to bowl, bat and field apart from one-to-one interviews with the players and their parents/guardians,� Kalaver told Times News Network.
Kalaver said that they would be selecting two boys who would be on a long-term contract with the SCA and also three-four players who would be playing for their local clubs.
“Those who will be on contract with the SCA will be paid approximately 2,500 Singaporean dollars (more than Rs 6.25 lakh) and will have to stay there for at least 11 months in a year, while those who will play for the local clubs in the Singapore league will have to be there for at least 183 days. Their pay package will be decided later,� Kalaver said.
Those who underwent the trials on Monday and Tuesday were Delhi’s Rachit Kapoor and Dhruv Mohan and Maharashtra’s Chetan Thorat, Kiran Adhav, Sagar Kulkarni, Chetan Suryavanshi, Agrani Bhosale, Rajesh Mahurkar, Parag More, Kshitij Shinde, Sridhar Gokhale, Amit Hagavane (all Pune), Digambar Waghmare (Nanded), Manoj Palkhede (Nashik), Sumeet Chavan (Sangli) and Sandesh Pawaskar (Sindhudurg).
The SCA will be spending close to (S) $1,50,000 each year on the four juniors. They will have to coach and play there and make themselves eligible to represent Singapore in the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) and International Cricket Council (ICC) tournaments. “The players can return to their countries during the off season in Singapore and play for their clubs in India and Sri Lanka,� Kalaver added.
One Tamil Nadu boy, V. Saravanan, who could not make to the trials for past two days as he was playing Buchi Babu tournament in Chennai, will have to undergo trials in Singapore sometime next week, Kalaver said.
Saravanan’s name was forwarded by former India player Robin Singh and Kalaver consulted Bharat Reddy and Roger Binny in that regard.
Kuruppu said that he was pretty happy with the talent. “All those who were shortlisted on Tuesday were very promising, but we have only few spots. I talked to almost all of them, giving each player a fair chance to prove their worthiness. We had additional trials for those who were a bit tense and nervous.�
SCA, in a bid to give an impetus to its development programme, will be investing over (S) $ 6,00,000 over the next four years on three Indian players and a Sri Lankan in the age-group of 18-22. Singapore have already recruited Karnataka boy M. Dharmichand, an off-spinner, who represented India in the Under-19 World Cup recently.
Kuruppu added that Singapore were doing quite well in cricket in recent years, though the game is mostly confined to expat Indians, Pakistanis and Sri Lankans. “It is one of the five ‘Fast Track Countries’ identified by the ACC for the development of cricket. The other four being United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Nepal and Hong Kong and it has been getting sizeable amount for cricket development from the ACC,� he said.