Guardian angel for budding cricketers

Sravani, a budding cricketer, was always in awe of her fellow women cricketers who carried branded bats, gloves and pads to practice. Today, thanks to Parikh Sports in Secunderabad, she has a full-fledged kit all to herself. The tradition of gifting free kits was started 14 years ago by Kamlesh Parikh and is now being carried forward by his son Dhruv.

“In the past we would handover kits to ten needy players but for the past four years we decided to distribute kits to five women cricketers as they hardly get sponsors,” says Dhruv. With more than 200 cricket teams in the city and a vibrant league structure, many budding cricketers come from impoverished backgrounds.

The criteria for distributing kits are not just their economic background but also the hunger to do well. Children of three groundsmen at Uppal stadium and Gymkhana Grounds are also benefitting. Mallesh, the groundsman at Gymkhana said, “I could not have let my son continue cricket if it were not for the largesse of Parikh Sports.”

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