Major League Cricket (MLC) announced today that five of the nation’s most talented young players – Rahul Jariwala, Sanjay Krishnamurthi, Saiteja Mukamalla, Ali Sheikh and Vatsal Vaghela – have been awarded UST Emerging Cricketer Scholarships by MLC. The players’ development will be fast-tracked via the scholarship program through new opportunities to play and train both domestically and overseas.
The five players have all been selected by the United States at U-19 level and been called up to the senior national team in the past twelve months. Scholarship selections took into account performance across multiple tournaments over the prior year, including participation in the Toyota Minor League Cricket championship, MLC Jr. Championships, UST Minor League Cricket Youth Tournament, elite invitational competition such as the Houston Challenge in March and matches with visiting Associate Members including Oman and Nepal in June.
The scholarships are intended to assist the emerging cricketers as they aim to develop into elite players and role models for their communities. Enhanced resources provided to the group includes the opportunity to participate in training sessions and camps with professional coaches and mentors at MLC facilities that have benefitted from substantial investment in recent years.
“We are thankful for the support of UST in providing a further boost to the development of a new generation of cricketers in the United States,” said Jagan Nemani, Head of MLC Academies. “Enormous enhancements have been made to the youth cricket ecosystem in recent years with the five players receiving scholarships all having demonstrated their abilities in challenging competitions. Emerging American players can now look forward to more opportunities than ever before with programs like the UST Scholarships in place.”
The scholarship awards come at the end of a historic week for youth cricket in the United States, with Ali Sheikh receiving the MVP award at the inaugural UST Minor League Cricket Youth Tournament. The competition took place near Houston, TX, at Prairie View Cricket Complex from July 25-29. The tournament results are available at https://www.mlcjrchampionship.com/schedules.
