Nagpur, Oct 29
Nowadays the game of cricket is not restricted to a few countries. It is rapidly catching the attention of youths in the entire world including US. It is a proud moment for Nagpurians that the city's Pravin Hingnikar who has been working as chief curator for the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has played an important role in developing cricket infrastructure in the state of Minnesota in US.
Former Ranji player Hingnikar who was associated with Vidarbha Cricket Association for long time helped Indian orign Saby Sengupta who is cricket enthusiast to develop three cricket grounds and turf wickets. Talking to Lokmat Times from US Sengupta said, “ I have purcahsed the farmlands and converted it into grounds. Pitch and ground making is not an easy task. Lot of science is involved in it. I came into contact with Hingnikar thru a common friend. I treat him as my Guru. I took time to time expert advice from Hingnikar who has a lot of experience and applied it to develop infrastructure.”
Hingnikar has appreciated the efforts of Saby. He said, “ Mr Saby is doing great work in US . He has developed a very good infrastructure for USA Cricket. I was fortunate to distantly assist him in pitch preparation and maintenance of pitches & outfield. I wish him all the success in his endeavours”.
Asked what prompted him to develop cricket inrastructure in US Saby who born at West Bengal and spend his childhood at Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh said, “ In late 70s my father had organised one Ranji match at Ujjain. There was no cricket infrastructure at all. He prepared wicket and ground. That inspired me to do something”.
Saby who is settled in US in 1988 said although cricket is not a mainstream sport in US it is growing rapidly. “ I think to popularise the game we need three pillars i.e. coaches, curriculum and infrastructure.I have involved myself in the third thing. Lot of Asians play cricket here but their approach is the armature and not professional. Their approach may be changed if they get proper infrastructure”, he said.
Saby said he had also attended ICC's 10-week pitch curation seminar offered by ICC World Cup curator Andy Atkinson. Apart from developing infrastructure, Saby conducted Men's T-20 matches, also hosted Us national cricketers Adil Bhatti and Usman Rafique on his grounds and conducted youth cricket camps and exposed around 1,000 kids to cricket.