Students from across the GEMS Education network put on a sterling performance at the second GEMS Cricket Cup.

The second GEMS Cricket Cup was even better than the first, with outstanding performances taking place over eight days. The tournament ran from 20-30 January 2019 at GEMS Heritage Indian School (GHS). The junior cricketers across GEMS schools competed in four age categories — U10, U12, U14, and U16. Some of UAE’s best young players from 19 schools across the UAE participated in the competition.

With over 400 participants competing, 64 champions, and 18 trophies, the tournament offered many opportunities for the cricketers to shine, with new champions, and schools being rewarded across the age groups, and a good spread of schools receiving trophies.

Boys from The Kindergarten Starters School (KGS) won the U10 category, while GEMS Modern Academy (GMA) won the U12 and U14 categories. The victors of the U16 category were the boys from The Winchester School (TWS). Throughout the tournament, the young cricketers scored more than 4,000 runs and took more than 200 wickets.

In the GEMS Cricket Cup U10 final, KGS played against Jumeirah Primary School (JPS), winning by 84 runs. They were the youngest players of the tournament, but their impact on the field was amazing to see. GMA delivered a consistent performance throughout the tournament to win the U12 final by 151 runs against JPS. Their victory over GHS in the U14 final was by a nail-biting nine wickets. The U16 final followed in a similar vein with some impressive bowling and batting from both sides. The match started with TWS winning the toss, and thanks to their consistently good bowling and fielding, they outperformed GEMS Winchester School — Dubai (WIN) by a narrow six wickets.

The event was organised by ESM and ESM Cricket Academy and supported by Monviso, STS, Gulf youth sport, Transworld, Threads, and Easy truck. James Bowring, Managing Director at ESM, says, “From last year when we set the standard for this event, it is wonderful to see so many young aspiring cricketers committing to their training programmes in school and at their clubs. It is also great to see new schools entering teams and new faces getting their spikes on with many newcomers winning medals.”