CHENNAI: Ace India spinner R Ashwin is one of the few players who wants to give back to the game in his playing days itself. Having come up the hard way as a cricketer starting from the fifth division in the TNCA league and going on to play for the country, Ashwin knows the difficulty that children face today to find their spot in the game. “The Ashwin Foundation has been established keeping in mind the various issues in society that requires urgent attention. Foremost on the foundation’s wish list is to impart state-of-the-art coaching methodologies to kids who have the required skill sets but don’t have the financial aid to continue their dream of playing cricket,’’ said Ashwin.
Earlier this month, the foundation in association with Gen Next Institute conducted a selection trial at SRMC grounds. Eight young cricketers were selected and given scholarships.
The children were also given kits at a function by former Indian cricketer M Venkataramana and HR Srinivasan, vice-chairman, Take Solutions. The foundation will be chaired by Ashwin’s wife Prithi.
“The aim of the foundation is to give cricket scholarships to young deserving players. It is also looking at creating awareness on road safety and safe driving, the importance and cause of eye donation and on the right to vote,’’ said Prithi.
“In our own small way, we wanted to give something back to cricket in particular and society in general. We would like to extend the scholarships to education as well in the near future. We are in the pursuit of concentrating and addressing issues that impact our everyday lives,” added Prithi.
The eight scholarship awardees who will train at the Gen Next Academy along with R Ashwin met former BCCI president N Srinivasan and took his blessings.
N Srinivasan was moved by Ashwin’s gesture and said that the boys were indeed very lucky to be getting the scholarships from a player of the stature of Ashwin. Ashwin also added that he will be leaving for England on June 23 to play for Nottinghamshire.
Akshaya advances
Aakshaya Riveira defeated Anusuya Subbiah 6-0, 6-2 in the girls U-14 quarterfinals of the Abi Showatech AITA ranking tennis tournament.
Results: Boys: Akash Geo Mattam bt Derrick Samuel 7-5, 6-4; Akshith Balasubramanian bt Kaushik Saravanan 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5); Kannan Govind bt Vishnu Balachandar 6-0, 7-5; Aniketh Venkataraman bt Nithik Sivakumar 6-4, 6-1.
Girls: Aakshaya Riveira bt Anusuya Subbiah 6-0, 6-2; Maaya Rajesh bt Sanjana Kothamasu 6-1, 6- 3; N Karthika bt Haritha 6-1, 6-3; P Dhanya bt Anjali S 6-2, 6-4.
Vjay shines
Left-arm spinner Vijay Anand’ s 6 for 22 helped Garnet RC beat SRM IST by 23 runs in the 50th All-India
YSCA trophy tournament.
Brief scores: Design Tech 86 all out in 28.1 ovs (Murugesh 3/17, Prabhu 3/4) lost to Freyer International 89/1 in 16.1 ovs (Sridhar Raj 32). Athreya CA (Thrissur) 207/4 in 30 ovs (Sidharth Sankar 63, Rakesh 85 n.o, Kailash Choudhry 3/40) bt Future Stars 96/7 in 30 ovs. Garnet RC 149 all out in 30 ovs (Sathish 62) bt SRM IST 126 all out in 26.2 ovs (Vijay Anand 6/22). Masters RCA (Ernakulam) 159/9 in 30 ovs (Arun Paulose 51, K Vignesh 3/32, AC Pratheepan 5/40) lost to AG’s office 163/4 in 29.3 ovs (Vijay Bharath 42, Francis Rokins 57 n.o, S Parameswaran 37 n.o.)