UAE tycoon vows kit bags for BD schools

Cricket fan body Bangladesh Cricket Supporters Association (BCSA) travelled to the UAE for last month's Asia Cup and has come away with a promise from the Shyam Bhatia Cricket for Care Foundation to donate 50 cricket kit bags to Bangladeshi schools.

Bhatia, a Dubai-based Indian industrialist, has accumulated one of the finest collections of cricketing memorabilia in the world and built the Shyam Bhatia Cricket Museum in Jumeirah.

The mandate of the foundation is to provide cricket equipment, facilities and coaching to underprivileged children all over the world. The foundation has made donations in over 20 countries around the world including non-cricket playing countries like Thailand, Indonesia and Japan.

Bhatia expressed his eagerness to support school cricket in Bangladesh and requested the BCSA to facilitate an initiative through which he will donate 50 bags of cricket equipment from the Shyam Bhatia Cricket for Care Foundation to some schools. Each bag contains three arm guards, six cricket balls, three cricket bats, two helmets, a pair of wicket-keeping gloves, three pairs of batting pads, three pairs of batting gloves, three thigh pads, and abdominal guards.

The museum has on display one of the largest collections of memorabilia -- like autographed bats, balls, rare books, photos, ties, caps, jackets and other equipment -- from some of the biggest names in cricket such as Sir Donald Bradman, Sir Vivian Richards and Sachin Tendulkar.

The writer is the president of the BCSA.