By Express News Service CHENNAI: Students of Lalaji Memorial Omega International School will probably have June 23 etched in their mind forever. Despite the searing heat, they enthusiastically interacted with Indian cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin who was at the school to talk to them about sports and balancing cricket and academics. At the event, the spinner announced the tie-up of his academy Generation Next Sports Academy with Lalaji Memorial Omega International school, Kolapakkam. This marks the institute’s sixth centre in Chennai. On Friday, director of Gen-Next Cricket Institute and Ravichandran Ashwin’s wife, Prithi Ashwin, completed the tie-up formalities with the school. “There are a lot of kids out there who lack the proper exposure and training, but have a lot of passion for the game. Together with the institute, we can produce a lot of good cricketers for the future,” said PR Krishna, chairman, Lalaji Memorial Omega International school. Facilities at Omega include state-of-the-art, lush green cricket ground built accounting to global standards and eight cricket nets. “Cricket is a repetition skill-based sport, meaning the trainee must be given a good chance to repeat their skills and hone them. We, at Gen next, do exactly that,” said Ashwin. He said that his team follows a systematic video reporting culture and that the parents will get the update about their kids regularly. The coaching centre is open in the morning and evening, all seven days of the week. “Also, the National Institute of Open School (NIOS) system is a great boon to anybody who wants to pursue an art or sport seriously. If I had a facility like this, I would have probably paid for the country two years earlier. We have the infrastructure today and all the parents need to do is let their children pursue their dream,” he said. Parents interested in registering their children for cricket coaching at the school can contact 9841784061 or 9884017371.

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