LUCKNOW, July 12 -- When Sankalp Singh stepped onto the cricket pitch of the Guru Gobind Singh Sports College here in Lucknow as a coach in 2012, his only dream was to produce India stars like Suresh Raina and RP Singh one day as both the Team India cricketers had learnt the basics of the game from the sports college itself. Certainly, it was a big challenge for a 25-year-old NIS degree holder then, but he chose to work on his mission with patience as managing 60-odd cricket inmates was quite tricky. He set a target for himself to convert his dream into reality, and now after spending 13 years in the college, Sankalp is quite satisfied for realising his first dream of pushing his trainees into the Uttar Pradesh teams for domestic events. Sankalp sounds confident to produce a Team India cricketer from the sports college in near future, and says that he is not leaving any stone unturned in making it happen soon. "In the last two years, four sports college cricketers made their presence felt in junior cricket in domestic events, whereas over 90 cricketers have so far played for school nationals in the last 13 years," said Sankalp on Friday. After Suresh Raina and RP Singh in 2005, sports college could hardly produce an India under-19 cricketer in the form of Mohd Saif in 2011-12, and since then no one could make it to the national squad even in the under-19 cricket. "In the last few years, I brought many changes in training methods through studies and now it is paying rich dividends. I would like to continue this in future also and if all goes well, we will be having a good number of players in the state teams for the domestic events," said Sankalp, who hails from Kunda in Pratapgarh. One of his trainees Aditya Kumar Singh, a left-arm orthodox spinner, finished with 35 wickets in Under-19 Cooch Behar Trophy, besides scoring 210 runs in 2024-25 season, after showing his class for the UP in Vijay Merchant Trophy in 2022-23. The boy, who is currently playing in the UPTwenty20 League, went to attend the high performance camp of U-16 first and then U-19 at the National Cricket Academy. Aditya's domestic performance was such that he was picked as one of the probables for the India Under-19 squad in 2023-24. "He (Aditya) has been a very talented cricketer and I am quite hopeful for him playing for India one day," said Sankalp, whose two other trainees Kushagra Singh and Harsh Yadav also did well for the Under-16 and Under-19 teams of Uttar Pradesh. His fourth trainee Jai Kumar Kesari remained part of the UP Under-16 team, but couldn't get a match. "Some of the trainees are too sincere about their training and even remain in constant touch even in the summer vacation. There is no dearth of talent in the sports college as the boys are being picked after 3-4 rounds of proper trials, which includes physical and skill tests,' said the coach. "I have heard many stories of senior cricketers of the sports college as many of them did great in domestic cricket during their time, and I wish to continue that legacy in future also," said Sankal, adding, "I want Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association's selectors to keep an eye on sports college trainees and I am sure that if my boys get more opportunity to play for the state cricket, they will make the state proud as they are very talented and energetic too."...