By Emb Hashmi
England and Essex top order batsman Ravi Bopara visited a local school in Birmingham to inspire the young students.
Students of Bishop Challoner Catholic College in Kings Heath were treated to some coaching skills and a Q&A with the England all-rounder.
Bishop Challoner Catholic College, along with thousands of schools across the country, are turning its timetable over to Asian and cricket-themed lessons during the week thanks to the ECB’s India & Sri Lanka Schools Challenge educational resource. They will also enjoy a cricket session in the playground with their heroes and take part in a Bollywood dance lesson.
As part of Yorkshire Tea National Cricket Week, Chance to Shine is encouraging all schools to take advantage of the ECB’s new India & Sri Lanka Schools Challenge.
Asian World interviewed Ravi and asked him why he thought it was important to support local schools in this way, he said: “I think its important because it helps kids get involved with cricket; it’s good to get kids into all types of sports, because for one it keeps them out of trouble and keeps them fit, and I would like to see the profile of cricket raised so this is perfect to increase awareness.”
We went on to ask Ravi if the excitement on the students faces to see him work with them encourages him to do more work like this. He said: “Yes it does, what I do is put myself in their shoes. When I was a little kid, I used to see big cricket names and I would get excited; the first time I saw a big cricket star is when I signed to Essex and saw them training.”
Away from the classroom and on the pitch Ravi told us his biggest goal so far is get back into playing test cricket; to do that he said he has to score lots of runs for Essex. Also one of his biggest goals is to get selected to play in the world cup next year. Ravi said: “I think England will do very well in the world cup next year, we are building for it now, as it has been mentioned before this is the England team that could win it for us.”
England and Essex batsmen said that any potential future cricketing hopefuls- like those he works with in school, should have a love for the game to really succeed in making their cricketing dream a reality.
