(Image source from: Americancricketers.com)

The Maryland Youth Cricket Association will honor top performers from the last season at its second annual gala in College Park on December 15, 2018.

The event will be held at Holiday Inn College Park, where dozens of young players in various age categories and divisions will be honored.

The cricketers who will be honored include Future Star School of Cricket (FSSC) allrounder Ritwik Behera and members of the Maryland State Under-16 team that vied in National Youth Cricket League in San Jose.

Behera, a Gaithersburg, MD, resident and a freshman at Poolesville High School, plays for Team Red - captained by the United States national team star Adil Bhatti - in the Washington Cricket League.

The state Under-16 team as well played in the Capital Youth Cricket Championship.

Maryland Sports Executive Director Terry Hasseltine will deliver the keynote address at the banquet and prominent Indian-American entrepreneur and philanthropist Frank Islam will present the awards.

The MYCA state championship tournament is held from April to June. This year, 24 teams competed in five divisions: Boys Under-11, Under-13 and Under-16, and Girls Under-13 and All Girls.

The current Boys Under-16 champions are FSCC, who defeated LTC in the championship match played at the Spencerville Park in Silver Spring, MD, on June 24.

Winners in the Under-13 division are GKRR, who beat Ellicott City in the finals.

In the Under-11 division, Bowie 11U and WCA were declared joint winners.

In the All Girls division, Bowie 1 defeated Ellicott City in the finals.

MYCA launched the Maryland Junior Cricket League and the Maryland Youth Cricket Championship in 2013. They were the first annual statewide youth cricket competitions in the United States.

The association has introduced cricket to thousands of elementary and middle schools children in the state.

According to MYCA, it has placed cricket sets in over 500 Maryland schools, making Maryland the national leader in schools cricket.

-Sowmya Sangam