Tuesday 23 / April / 2024
Muscat: Fifteen-year-old R. Bharat Srinivas is a talented left-arm spinner (orthodox) and a left-handed batsman. Studied in Indian School Muscat till seventh standard, Bharat dreams of playing for India.
In Muscat, Bharat got training under coaches such as Sandesh Dhuri (BOC), Hemal Mehta & Bhavesh Mehta (MCCC) and Karthikeyan (ISM). He always remembers his Muscat life where he learnt cricket at the grassroots.
Guru Prasanna is very keen on Bharat’s achievements and he is fortunate to have the blessings of Kanak Khimji, Chairman of Khimji Group and Duleep Mendis, Chief Development Officer, when left Oman in 2017.
When Bharat played his last tournament in Muscat Under-13 Junior league 2016-2017, ISM was the champion under his captaincy. In this tournament, Bharat was awarded the Best Batsman, the Best Bowler and the Best All Rounder by Oman Cricket.
On seeing Bharat’s passion for cricket, his parents S Ramki and Mrs M Lakshmi, moved him to India to improve his cricketing skills. His mother resigned her job in Muscat and moved to Chennai along with Bharat to pursue his cricketing career.
In Chennai, Bharat joined 8th std in Vidya Mandir Senior Secondary School and continues his studies & cricket coaching in school as well as other prominent academies.
To motivate Bharat, his father also moved to Chennai in 2018.
Presently, he’s in class 10 and got selected for Tamil Nadu Under-16 State team after preliminary trials.
During his selection process, he took 13 wickets in 4 matches with the best figures of 5 for 45 in 40 overs with 19 maidens. He helped his team secure the first-innings lead by scoring 25* in 2 matches.
In one of the tournaments named “Reddy’s Trophy” in Chennai, Bharat played against VB cricket academy in which Rahul Dravid’s son (Master Samit Dravid) also played. He got Samit’s wicket and took 4 wickets in the same match. He got the best all-rounder award taking 11 wickets and scoring 196 runs. Bharat got the appreciation personally from the Rahul Dravid.
India Cements conducted a tournament named Junior Super Kings T-20 Championship 2019 (Open Age category). Most of the schools from Chennai City participated in this tournament in August-September. In this tournament, Bharat got two awards in various matches viz., one is ‘Super Striker’ and another is ‘Star Performer’.
Bharat is also representing TNCA Fourth Division League Team ‘Purasawakkam CC’ headed by former India Under-19 player Shyam Sundar. Presently Bharat is getting training under various coaches such as Ravichandran, Shyam Sundar, Srinivasan and special spin techniques from S. Vasudevan (Former Tamil Nadu Ranji Trophy Player & one of the best left-arm spinners from Tamil Nadu).
Bharat says that he will put all his efforts and hard work to achieve his dream of playing for India. He is confident that he will balance his studies and game simultaneously.
