Noshir magic bowls over cricket trainees

Hyderabad: It was dream come true for several young trainees at the city’s popular Sarojini Cricket Academy. Champion off-spinner and the ageless Ranji Trophy wonder Noshir Mehta enlightened them about several intricate aspects of the gentleman’s game.

It was a memorable outing for the budding cricketers, including girls, when the master spinner gave tips on the subtle art of spin bowling in particular and developing cricketing skills in general.

To several of them, it was a wonder that the lanky and genial man conducting the class was a magician with the ball who bamboozled the finest of batsmen in his heyday.

The young players, caught up in the era of Dhonis and Kohlis, were left speechless when they were informed by the Academy Secretary, GR Kiran that Noshir Sir was a true-blue symbol of longevity as he played active cricket alongside players who were not even born when he took to the game.

He did not merely play but actually held on to his own against such ‘contemporaries’ with his fit and agile body, explained Kiran, who is also Principal of Transport Academy and Zonal Staff Training College in Hakimpet.

‘You are all lucky because you have opportunities to develop your game in well-equipped support systems like Sarojini Cricket Academy where the infrastructure is top grade and you have diligent coaches on hand, who can work on your strengths and weaknesses. But we all learnt cricket with our individual determination and came up the hard way.

Stay focussed and take everything seriously so that you can improve and dream of conquering bigger challenges,’ were the pearls of wisdom from Noshir, which would have certainly served as practical learning and motivational lessons to the kids.

Noshir Mehta also passed on tips to the coaches at the Academy and gave away prizes to the best of the lot while Kiran expressed his gratitude by felicitating the celebrity teacher.