Among those recognized include US national women’s team star Lisa Ranjit, dozens of young cricketers and coaches.
The Maryland Youth Cricket Association celebrated its young cricketers’ achievements with pride and pomp at the organization’s third annual banquet in College Park, MD on October 5.
Dozens of young cricketers, ranging ages 11 to 17, who played in three different divisions — Under-12, Under-14 and Under-17 — were honored at the event. MYCA also recognized Maryland state team players, including the state Under-14 team, who were champions in two national tournaments and runners up in one.
Speaking on the occasion, MYCA Chairman Jamie Harrison highlighted the remarkable progress the organization has made in 10 years. He recalled the humble beginning of MYCA, when two or three teams played tennis ball cricket on base ball diamonds. Now with more than 350 kids playing cricket in five divisions across 11 clubs in the area, Maryland youth have started making their marks in national cricket and even at international stage, he said.
Harrison pointed out that Lisa Ramjit has become a local celebrity at the age of 14 by getting selected to US women’s team and grabbing the first international wicket in the history of US cricket. She has appeared on television and featured in newspaper interviews, and even threw the ceremonial first pitch at the Baltimore Orioles stadium during the cricket day celebrations, he said.
Harrison said MYCA, which is now a registered nonprofit organization with board representing every club, has instituted financial support for US national players. Any Maryland youth cricketer who gets selected to US teams will be given financial support, he said.
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Ramjit, the first recipient of the award, received a check for $500.
MYCA treasurer Sham Chotoo spoke about the growth of girls’ club cricket. This year, in addition to the three teams in the girls’ division, there was a girls’ travel team that competed with boys in the 12U division and gave other teams a run for their money.
Roxroy Anderson, a former Washington Cricket League player, gave a brief introduction of how WCL was formed and gave a motivating speech to the youngsters providing invaluable lessons from his playing days.
Anderson, who coached Ramjit during her early career, introduced the young cricketer, who was the guest speaker for the evening.
Ramjit recalled her cricketing journey over the years, moving from coach to coach and tournament to tournament, in the tough world of boys, as a lone girl and how she fought the odds to come out with flying colors. She thanked her coaches and peers, as well as her parents, who made a lot of sacrifices, driving miles for her cricket lessons and games.
Shaffeel Ahmed, a member of the MYCA board of directors and scheduling and stats committee chair, was felicitated by Harrison with a plaque for his contributions to the organization. Ahmed, who was instrumental in live-streaming the MYCA championship games this year, also helped MYCA develop its own scoring app powered by Cricclubs.
Here is the list of awards and awardees:
Top performer for each team | ||||
Team Name | Division | Best Batsman | Best Bowler | MVP |
Bowie-1 | 11U | Suryavel Santhalingam | Ayaan Iqbal | Akhil Chakravarthy |
Bowie-2 | 11U | Amari Satchell | Nikhil Swayampakula | Tanay Parikh |
Chantilly | 11U | Rahul Dham | Dev Patel | Araadh Chadha |
Ellicott City | 11U | Arnab Mishra | Sajal Prajapati | Tejesh Keerthi |
FSSC | 11U | Tanush Apte | Simant Nithyananda | Goutham Muvva |
LFYAA | 11U | Vanshdeep Singh | Yasin Boehm | Aaditi Patel |
LTC | 11U | Aaditya Patel | Raja Goswami | James Barrett |
Rockville Rockstars-1 | 11U | Shenal Ediriweera | Zaheen Ahmed | Akshay Garg |
Rockville Rockstars-2 | 11U | Jayjeet Das | Reyansh Pundlik | Arjun Mujumdar |
WCA | 11U | Atharva Kaushal | Samanyu Muppala | Aaryan Boddupally |
Team Name | Division | Best Batsman | Best Bowler | MVP |
Ellicott City Boys | 12U | Sai Dommaraju | Baladhithya Ravikumar | Pradyumnan Vishaal |
Ellicott City Girls | 12U | Nishka Kumar | Anika Kumar | Amrutha Alibilli |
FSSC | 12U | Aum Patel | Arya Lele | Shiv Nair |
GKCC | 12U | Ayush Patel | Siddhant Jog | Mihir Verma |
Loudoun Cubs | 12U | Ranveer Kataria | Sathwikk Patibandla | Kush Patel |
Rockville Rockstars | 12U | Alvin Kanappilly | Maaz Mohammed | Veer Banwait |
WCA | 12U | Prithul Baveja | Atharva Kaushal | Amit Damaraju |
Team Name | Division | Best Batsman | Best Bowler | MVP |
Bowie | 14U | Abhishek Mudireddy | Douglas Hinton | Arjun Prabhala |
Ellicott City | 14U | Arjun Muley | Dev F. Patel | Aaryan Batra |
FSSC | 14U | Govind Mohandas | Tanush Apte | Shiv Nair |
GKRR | 14U | Adithya Kidambi | Raghav Haridas | Araav Rotella |
LTC Thunder | 14U | Omar Qazi | Shiven Patel | Amandeep Singh |
WCA | 14U | Shaunak Marathe | Amit Damaraju | Shawn Mathias |
Team Name | Division | Best Batsman | Best Bowler | MVP |
Bowie | 17U | Shanthan Gunti | Ayaan Osman | Shuaib Syed |
FSSC | 17U | Nileesha Ratnayake | Mihir Ganguli | Ritwik Behera |
LTC | 17U | Raja Herman | Aadil Master | Amandeep Singh |
GKCC | 17U | Arjun Rakheja | Tanuj Shah | Raghav Haridas |
MD Thunder | 17U | Ohm Sapa | Harshil Shah | Shaunak Marathe |
Rockville Rockstars | 17U | Tejas Nazare | Ziyan Ahmed | Shravan Sudhir |
WCL Cubs | 17U | Anirudh Chandran | Shivoy Sharma | Ishan Sharma |
Team Name | Division | Best Batsman | Best Bowler | MVP |
Bowie | Girls | Bree Mullikin | Shirvanie Hinton | Breanna Young |
Chantilly | Girls | Madina Vazirli | Akshara K. Subburam | Mary Grimmick |
Ellicott City | Girls | Sanika Zarkar | Varshitha Yalamanchili | Mishal Alamgir |
Team Name | Division | Best Batsman | Best Bowler | MVP |
Maryland Team 1 | 12U | Alvin Kanappilly | Rithwik Puli | Prabhnoor Singh |
Maryland Team 2 | 12U | Sai Dommaraju | Siddhant Jog | Akhil Chakravarthy |
Maryland State | 14U | Aditya Bharadwaj | Lisa Ramjit | Amandeep Singh |
Maryland State A | 14U | Anish Patel | Abhishek Mudireddy | Nikhil Varma |
Maryland State | 16U | Shanthan Gunti | Shankar Haridas | Arjun Rakheja |
Division top performers | |||
Division | Best Batsman | Best Bowler | MVP |
Girls | Sanika Zarkar | Bree Mullikin | Mary Grimmick |
11U | Goutham Muvva | Akshay Garg | Akhil Chakravarthy |
12U | Veer Banwaith | Baladhithya Ravikumar | Shiv Nair |
14U | Aaryan Batra | Tanush Apte | Amandeep Singh |
17U | Nileesha Ratnayake | Mihir Ganguli | Ishan Sharma |
Division champions | |||
Division | Champions | Runners Up | |
Girls | Bowie | Chantilly | |
11U | Bowie-1 | Rockville Rockstars-1 | |
12U | Future Stars School of Cricket | Rockville Rockstars | |
14U | Future Stars School of Cricket | LTC Thunder | |
17U | WCL Cubs | Future Stars School of Cricket |
“Coach of the Year” award winners | |
Girls | Karthic Subburam and Chitra Karthic |
11U | Richard Johnson |
12U | Jaweed Mohammed |
14U | Sandan Kumar |
17U | Sunny Sohal |