Seventeen-year-old Krrish Manick’s maiden visit to the Eden Gardens turned out to be one that he would remember forever.
The teenager got an opportunity to bat against the left-arm spin of Bangladesh cricket captain Shakib Al-Hasan.
He was over the top. And he was not alone.
Twenty girls and boys who play cricket or are cricket fans got about 45 minutes with the Bangladesh cricket team on Friday, a day before their match against The Netherlands on the same ground.
The idea was to promote the message of equal opportunity: for boys, girls and individuals with disabilities.
The players gave the city girls and boys, who included two students who were hearing and speech impaired, tips on how to bat, bowl and field and interacted with them.
ICC and Unicef’s “Cricket4good” initiative brought players to advocate messages to #BeAChampion through equality between girls and boys, to help them become confident, work together and for an equal world.
“While giving them cricket tips, the message that we wanted to send across was also that same opportunities are to be given to boys and girls. Both girls and boys need to understand they are equals and that is why we invited both girls and boys to the session,” said an official of Unicef.
The message was not lost on the group.
“It felt good to have played with boys. I felt on a par with the boys to play with international cricketers,” said Sneha Mondal.
Another girl, Tanisha Paswan, who plays cricket said she learnt how understanding between players of a team was important for the game.
“Good communication among team members in the field matters a lot. We have to play as a team to bring victory,” she said.