MUSCAT: R Bharat Srinivas, who had led Indian School Muscat (ISM) to Oman Cricket Under-13 Junior league champions, has made it to the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu Under-16 team.
The parents of the 15-year-old, S Ramki and M Lakshmi, had decided to settle in India to pursue Bharat’s cricketing ambitions couple of years back.
Bharat is a left-arm spinner (orthodox) and a left-handed batsman. The teenager assures that he will put all his efforts and hard work to achieve his dream come true, to play for India.
Bharat studied in ISM till his 7th standard. In Muscat, Bharat got training under various qualified coaches such as Sandesh Dhuri (BOC), Hemal Mehta abd Bhavesh Mehta (MCCC) and Karthikeyan (ISM).
Bharat always remembers his Muscat life where he has started grass root level in cricket.
No wonder he was noted as a child prodigy by the cricketing fraternity in Muscat. Guru Prasanna, former cricketer and manager of Enhance CT, was one of his prominent mentor. He was also well supported by Oman head coach Duleep Mendis and OC Chairman Kanak Khimji.
When Bharat played his last tournament in OC Under-13 Junior league 2016-2017, ISM were the champions under Bharat’s captaincy. In this tournament, Bharat had been awarded the best batsman, the best bowler and the best all-rounder by Oman Cricket.
In Chennai, Bharat has joined 8th std in Vidya Mandir Senior Secondary School and continues his studies and cricket coaching in school as well as other prominent academies.
Initially, he struggled a lot to represent Tamil Nadu Under-14 State team when he couldn’t get through in the final trials. This failure made him work hard and set a goal to get into Under-16 state team. To motivate Bharat, his father S Ramki who worked in Muscat also moved to Chennai in 2018.
“As parents, our desire and dream for Bharat is to represent his country. To achieve this, we ensure that he learns self-discipline sportsman spirit, work-hard on fitness, regular net-practice and listening to respective coaches and following their tips,” his parents said.
Presently in Class 10, Bharat got selected for Tamil Nadu Under-16 State team after so many preliminary trials. In his selection matches, he took 13 wickets in 4 matches with best figures of 5 for 45 bowling 40 overs with 19 maidens. He helped his team secure the first-innings lead by scoring 25 not out in 2 matches.
In ‘Reddy’s Trophy’ in Chennai, Bharat played against VB cricket academy in which Indian cricket great Rahul Dravid’s son Samit Dravid also played. He had got Samit’s wicket and took 4 wickets in the same match. He got the best all-rounder award taking 11 wickets and scoring 196 runs. Bharat got the appreciation personally from the former Indian batsman.
In August-September, India Cements’ tournament Junior CSK -2019 (Open Age category) was competed among most of the schools from Chennai city. In this tournament, Bharat got two awards in various matches viz., one is ‘Super Striker’ and another is ‘Star Performer’.
Bharat is also representing TNCA Fourth Division League Team ‘Purasawakkam CC’ headed by former India Under-19 player Shyam Sundar.
Presently, Bharat is getting training under various coaches such as Ravichandran, Shyam Sundar, Srinivasan and learning special spin techniques from Vasudevan, former Tamil Nadu Ranji Trophy player.
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