Hyderabad, Sep 13 (Representative) Ankesh Rathore from Rajasthan unanimously elected as the first president of the Indian Schools Board for Cricket (ISBC) here on Monday. The ISBC, a non-profit organization set up, intends to reach out to the nook and corner of India for creating a level playing field for the rural cricket talent. Along with Ankesh, the other elected office bears of the Board are — Vice President — Sandhya Agarwal (Madhya Pradesh); Y.Sudersana Babu (Andhra Pradesh) and Sangram Ionkar (Maharashtra) ; Secretary –Padam Raj Prakash (Rajasthan); Joint Secretaries — Mohd Yousuf (Tamil Nadu) Dr S Senthil Kumar (Tamil Nadu); Treasurer – D Srinivas Reddy (from Andhra Pradesh) . Executive Committee members are : Jayesh Gandhi (Maharashtra) Varsha Sharma (MP), T.Srinivas Reddy (Andhra Pradesh), Ch Vijay Kumar (Andhra Pradesh) and Amit Bokadia (Rajasthan).
Abhishek Avala (Telangana) is the Chairman of the Board. ISBC founder CEO , Sunil Babu Kolanpaka said the board was established with an aim to give an opportunity to all those children who believe they can play cricket but are less fortunate and the board is in consultation with major school management for their partnership in grooming school cricket talent. “This board would not disturb anybody and all the activities of the board will be informed to the BCCI,” he informed. The ISBC will be focusing on building infrastructure, in conducting regular cricket camps, organizing cricket tournaments of different age groups and in the process, we are structuring the state bodies who will be responsible in this talent hunt and nurture project, he said. The Board will be organizing an annual event called Indian Schools Talent League (ISTL), reaching out for school cricket talent to every corner of India, he said the schedule and partnerships will be announced one the state bodies formed by the end of December this year.
Under the ISTL there will be educational scholarships and expert cricket training at ICC level academies in India and Abroad, he added. Former captain and chief selector Padma Shri Dilip Vengsarkar, who was the Chief Advisor for ISB, was also present on the occasion. Vengsarkar said that It is privileged to be here to announce Indian & school cricketers. I’m very happy because school cricket is very important in building strength sports. He appreciated the efforts of Sunil, Avinash Gehlot (MLA, Rajasthan) and Ankesh. He said School Cricket a foundation for youth success, but most of the people they don’t get opportunity, infrastructure which is basic, in some places like Mumbai have lot of resources and constructive guidance’s to cherish their skills and we did almost 100 tournaments that made foundation strong in Mumbai for school kids over years and wishing in Telangana state too.