The VelloCricket Journal

USYCA is pleased to announce the candidates for election on April 27:

President: Jamie Harrison, Maryland (incumbent, unopposed)
1st VP: Edward Fox, Kansas (incumbent, unopposed)
2nd VP: Jatin Patel, Indiana (incumbent, unopposed)
Treasurer: Michael Thomas, Massachusetts (incumbent, unopposed)
General Secretary: Rakesh Kallem, Connecticut (unopposed)
Public Relations Director: Orville Hall, Florida (incumbent, unopposed)

(As these candidates are unopposed, their resumes are not published here.)

At-Large Board of Directors (5 to be elected, alphabetically listed)

Anu Babbar, Maryland: Anurag Babbar (Anu) is the founder of the first organized youth cricket club in Maryland, focused solely on children’s development. The Germantown Kids Cricket Club (GKCC) started in 2011 with about 6 players and within two years grew to include over 60 members. Anu’s passion is to be an enabler in making cricket a cool game for today’s children to get into – and in helping to remove some of the stereotypes (old, boring, time consuming) attached to the game.

GKCC is a volunteer-driven organization where the emphasis is on having fun through initiative and the active participation of entire family, not just the players. Anu not only shares, but has already been successfully promoting USYCA’s vision of promoting the game among the youth. He also serves as 1st Vice President of the Maryland Youth Cricket Association.
Sham Chotoo, Maryland: Sham Chotoo grew up playing cricket in Trinidad and Tobago. He played for his high school (Queen’s Royal College) in the 1980’s and was the leading wicket-taker in 1987. The level of cricket was very competitive as four of his high-school teammates and some players from opposing teams went on to play for the Trinidad and Tobago national teams. His most famous opponent, Brian Lara, did not score many runs against his bowling.

Sham migrated to the USA in 1989 to further his education and has continued playing cricket in the Washington Cricket League for the past 24 years. Sham obtained a PhD in physics from the University of Maryland College Park in 1998. He has been working as a radar scientist for User Systems, Inc. for the past 14 years and is currently the Vice President of User Systems. He is also the Public Relations Officer for his cricket club, Metro Sports Club.

In 2012, he started the summer cricket program with the Bowie Boys and Girls Club with help from the USYCA. There were about 50 children in the program last year, and nearly all the kids had not played the game before. The players and their parents love the game now. This year it is expected that there will be at least 100 children participating in the program.

With the recent decline in cricket at his high school in Trinidad, Sham is currently leading an effort to improve cricket there. He is working with former West Indies wicketkeeper Deryck Murray and some of his high-school friends to provide coaching and financial assistance to the school.

Sham is also the treasurer for the Maryland Youth Cricket Association. He believes that if cricket is to take hold in the USA, we must start with American children, and the MYCA and USYCA are on the right track.
Siva Narapareddy, Virginia (incumbent): Siva Narapareddy is very passionate about cricket and has the amazing ability to bring people together for a common goal via various cricket projects. Being a successful IT entrepreneur, Siva recognized the fact that there is tremendous potential to conduct professional cricket in the USA.

Siva has been working actively since last several years on promoting youth cricket in Virginia. He is in the process of having a nonprofit youth cricket organization, the Virginia Youth Cricket Association (VYCA). VYCA currently has about 40 members from ages 6-15. Siva has already introduced cricket to 25 schools in Loudoun County, Virginia via USYCA.

Siva wants to help USYCA to develop youth cricket since USYCA is the national youth cricket organization.

Siva also has three four cricket clubs in the Washington DC metro area, which are involved in all forms of cricket, and also has a team which tours across USA to participate in high profile tournaments. In addition to that, Siva is the Vice President for a newly formed entity called USA Friendship Cup T20.
Ashok Patel, New Jersey: Ashok played cricket as a youth while growing up in England and represented the MCC Ground Staff at the age of 16. He represented Essex County 2^nd XI and ground staff teams in UK and was selected to play for Tasmania in Australia. Ashok was on the ground staff panel for 3 years, where he learned the administrative areas of the game. Ashok holds levels 1 & 2 coaching certifications.

Ashok has been president of the USA Cricket Academy since it was founded in 1999, and has been a board member of USACA’s Youth and Junior Development Program since 2001. He was manager of USACA’s U13’s & U15’s team in 2002 Americas Cup, manager of Atlantic Region’s senior team in 2003, 2004, 2009 & 2010, manager of USACA’s U19 team in 2006 U19s World Cup in Sri Lanka, and manager of Atlantic Region U15’s 2009. Ashok sponsored USACA U19 team in its Worl Cup warm-up tour of Hyderabad, India in 2006.

Ashok assisted in the creation of the Atlantic Region Directors XI for the U15’s national tournament 2010 and hosted the first ever U13 regional tournament in USA in 2001. He also has organized an U13 tour to Barbados in 2002, U19 & U17 tours to Trinidad & Tobago in 2002, 2003 & 2004, U15 & U13 tours to Wales in 2003, and an U19 tour to Barbados in 2004 and to India in 2007. He has assisted the California Cricket Academy in multiple tournaments held in California and internationally.

In 2002, Ashok received the Presidents Award for Excellence from the Cricket Hall of Fame, which was presented by Sunil Gavaskar. He has been recognized by the Garden State Cricket League for Outstanding Leadership and Community Service in 2002 & 2003 and has achieved Global and Regional awards from the ICC in 2003 for Best Junior Development Initiative.
Yogesh Patel, Texas (incumbent): Over the last three years Yogesh has been actively involved in promotion of cricket to young children, and has made basic cricket demonstrations at various schools in the Houston area. He has worked with schoolteachers in CFISD and provided support for their summer program to introduce cricket to students.
Yogesh also made a cricket presentation at a Sugar Land Skeeters minor league baseball game and at Memorial Herman Hospital cricket games for their doctors at Constellation Field in Sugar Land.

Having fully recovered from knee replacement surgery, in the coming years he is planning to work with various schools in Houston area to introduce cricket and is also planning to work with local non-profit organizations to introduce cricket for their young children. Yogesh would also like to work with local cricket leagues on their development programs for youth cricket in Texas.
Vasu Ram, Massachusetts (incumbent): Vasu is the chair of USYCA’s Membership Committee, where he oversaw the implementation of USYCA’s membership program and established the cost structure. He also negotiated USYCA’s sponsorship agreement with Reebok and has been working with other potential sponsors.

Vasu has introduced cricket to Boston Public Schools, the Shrewsbury School District, the Watchusett school district, the English Charter School, and Paxton High School. Vasu expects more schools to follow this spring.

He conducted a summer camp for the residents of Shrewsbury with the support of Commonwealth Cricket Club and conducted a three-day camp for the Melbourne Cricket Club. Vasu will be conducting a spring 2013 camp in association with the UAA cricket club in Boston and the Academy of the Pacific Rim Charter Public School.

Vasu plans to formalize a team dedicated to youth cricket in Massachusetts, and to broaden his outreach to schools. He will organize more camps to teach the basics of the game and will reach out more of his contacts to help in getting more sposorship and support for USYCA.
Priya Singh, Missouri: Priya has been working actively since last year on promoting youth cricket in Missouri. She has formed a registered nonprofit youth cricket organization, the Missouri Youth Cricket Association (MYCA) and has built a ground fully dedicated to youth cricket. MYCA currently has about 65 members from ages 6-17. MYCA has launched a cricket academy to teach the techniques of cricket, and also has three tournaments (hard tennis ball) scheduled for U10 & U16 in 2013. She will be reaching out to more and more community groups and spreading awareness about USYCA, USACA and its youth programs.

Priya is working on introducing new cricket programs for younger children ages 3-5 called T-Cricket and ages 5-7 called Coach Pitched Cricket, similar to T-ball and Coach Pitch baseball. The parents are introducing sports to children early, and Priya feels a need to provide cricket as an option at early age. MYCA is also planning to start an indoor cricket program so that children have an opportunity to stay in touch with cricket during the winter.

She plans to have at least one U15 competitive team ready by 2015 (via MYCA’s academy) that can compete with other regional teams. MYCA plans to grow in numbers, but the growth in quality is equally important, and they are focusing on nurturing the existing talent so they can become role models for the future ones to come. She plans to connect with all the regional cricket groups in the Midwest as well as conducting at least one tournament per year involving all the regional teams within a 350-mile radius.

USYCA is the central point of connection between various youth groups in the country, and Priya wants to help USYCA in any way she can to develop youth cricket, starting with Missouri.