Former Indian cricketer Suresh Raina has expressed his interest to promote cricket in Jammu and Kashmir. The veteran cricketer has written a letter to J&K Director General of Police Dilbag Singh in this regard.
Raina is looking to scout for exciting talents in the region and provide an opportunity to them in an attempt to shape their careers in the sport. He believes that this will be a grueling process as it involves many things such as scouting from the educational institutions of rural areas to begin with.
On the other hand, the hand picked talents should also undergo mental and physical fitness training to keep up with the elite. Suresh Raina believes this will help Indian cricket a lot in the future.
“I write this letter with much hope and expectation to start and promote cricket and thus provide an opportunity for [sic] underprivileged children from the [erstwhile] state of Jammu & Kashmir to shape their careers in cricket.”
“Cricket is not just a sport, it evolves as a process and could shape and mould a group of individuals with professional ethics and discipline that can be maintained further into life, staying fit and healthy both mentally and physically,” concluded Suresh Raina.
In case if you are unaware, off spinner Parvez Rasool remains the only cricketer from Jammu Kashmir to ever represent India in international cricket. He represented India in just one ODI and T20I each back in 2017. However, if Raina succeeds in his attempts to promote the sport, India might see more talented cricketers from the union territory.
Meanwhile, former cricketer Irfan Pathan has also dedicated his efforts to promote cricket in Jammu Kashmir in recent years.
Suresh Raina remains X-Factor for CSK
Despite his recent retirement from Indian cricket, Suresh Raina is undoubtedly one of the best players in IPL history. He has numerous records to his name and has been consistent with his batting for Chennai Super Kings.
Needless to say, he is in fact their most important player in all the editions CSK participated in. Suresh Raina is the backbone for Chennai’s batting and has provided match winning knocks many times.
On the other hand, with his retirement from international cricket, Raina is solely focused on IPL this season. The team had traveled to UAE last week and are currently under mandatory quarantine period.
Chennai Super Kings will rely heavily on Suresh Raina once again. The BCCI are yet to announce IPL 2020 schedule. But it is largely expected CSK will take on Mumbai Indians in the curtain raiser next month.
