English cricket’s new Indian bloodline?

[Sir john]

An Indian-origin brother and sister duo might become the first-ever Asian siblings to play in English county. Deep and Riya Desai, who both have played cricket for the Indian Community Centre (ICC) team in Nottingham have been called up for the boys’ under-11 and the girls under-13 squad respectively. The siblings have also represented their school teams. While 10-year-old Deep was a part of Kimberley School team, 12-year-old Riya has played with Wollaton Girls team. The duo has been a part of the sport from an early age, getting trained under the watchful eyes of their father Dipak Desai, who himself had been an ICC player. Dipak played in the under-19 squad for Nottingham and later took to coaching. “I’m absolutely thrilled that they are both in the Nottingham squads. Even our relatives and their grandparents in India are very thrilled about the feat. They have both worked very hard to get to this point, especially when there are so many talented youngsters to choose from,†an obviously elated Dipak said. He added that both Riya and Deep had initially got selected for the development squad - a new initiative of identifying talented youngsters and putting them through their paces for final selection in the junior squads. “They also went to India to attend coaching camps which helped them in improving their technique and that impressed the manager of the Nottingham county cricket club, Stewart Burrows,†Dipak said. It now depends on their performance to progress through to the senior level. Another Indian-origin player, Samit Patel, is already in the seniors Nottingham squad and is knocking at the doors of the national team. link